
Book ' r ^ 



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BIRD BEHAVIOUR 




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YOUNG OF BARN-OWL. 

AlthoughVtheir white down is very different from the feathers of the old birds 
these nestlings have the face just like the adult. 



.Zi^^T 




TYPES OF PHEASANTS, 
Argus (top left), Golden (top right), Mikado (centre), Silver (bottom), showing different 
styles of masculine decoration. 



Frontispiece. 



BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

PSYCHICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL 



BY 

FRANK FINN, B.A. (Oxon), F.Z.S. 

Late Editor of " The Zoologist" 

AUTHOR OF 

"BIRDS OF THE COUNTRYSIDE," *' EGGS AND NESTS OF BRITISH BIRDS," 

"the world's BIRDS," ETC. 



' Behold the fowls of the air."— St. Matthew vi. 26 



With 44 Illustrations -^^t Art Paper 



NEW YORK 
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 



,ft 



PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN 



V//6^(;f 



ir^ 



y 

CONTENTS 
CHAPTER I 

Importance of subject — Incompleteness of our information about 
even the commonest species — Distinction between major and 
minor habits — General activities or tricks of manner — 
Greater importance of the latter in classification — Errors to 
be avoided in observation . , . . pp. I- 1 2 

CHAPTER II 

The locomotion of birds — ^Hopping and walking — Reasons for 
adoption of these gaits — Why waterfowl waddle — Swimming 
and diving — ^Perching and climbing — Different methods of 
performing these actions — Specialized birds which have taken 
to different habits, as Ground-Parrots and Land Geese — Flight 
and its varieties — Characteristic methods according to group 
and size — SaiUng and soaring flight — Speed . pp. 13-32 

CHAPTER III 

The nutrition of birds — ^Various kinds of food, animal and vege- 
table — ^Methods of and adaptations for obtaining it — Changes 
of diet — Gluttony of some species — Power of discrimination 
among foods, both vegetable and animal — ^The much-discussed 
relations of birds to insects, especially butterflies pp. 33-76 



vi CONTENTS 



CHAPTER IV 

Nutrition {continued) — ^Manipulation of food — Powers of diges- 
tion, differing in different groups — ^The formation of pellets 
or castings — Difference in the food of old and young in some 
cases — Different methods of feeding the young — ^Young assist- 
ing parents in feeding their juniors — Feeding of each other 
by the sexes — Drinking, and eating of such substances as salt 
and earth ..... . . pp. 77-112 

CHAPTER V 

Propagation — Care of young — Different types of young birds — 
Different modes of feather-development, as seen in young 
Fovv^l, Pigeon, or Duck, for instance — Egg-coloration and its 
meaning and variations — Prolificacy and otherwise — Incuba- 
tion mounds — Periods of incubation . . pp. 1 13-165 



CHAPTER VI 

Propagation {continued) — Nest-making not purely a bird-habit — 
Eggs laid without nests — ^Types of nests — Parasitic nesting — 
— Parasitic layers, like Cuckoos and Cow-birds — Degrees of 
development of parasitic instinct . . . pp. 166-205 



CHAPTER VII 

Migration — ^An anciently observed phenomenon still imperfectly 
understood — Reasons for it — ^Methods as far as is known — 
Difference between migratory species and the homing Pigeon 
— Widespread tendency to migration, contrasted with con- 
tradictory tendency to form localized non-migratory races, 
ending in some cases in Sightlessness, as in some birds of 
remote islands . » , , , t PP* 206-224 



CONTENTS vii 



CHAPTER VIII 

The senses of birds — Sight and its general high development — 
Degree of perception of colour — Influence of colour, if any, 
on courtship, and the segregation of species — ^Perception of 
the' colour in various kinds of food — Smell, usually poorly 
developed — ^Exceptions noted — ^Acuteness of hearing — Sense 
of touch — ^Taste-perceptions . . . pp. 225-254 



CHAPTER IX 

The emotions of birds — ^Mentality higher than is supposed, but 
variable according to species or groups — Strong- and weak- 
minded birds — Intelligence and stupidity — ^The limitations 
of instinct — ^Expression of the emotions and its relation to 
courting displays — Love and sociability — Hatred and re- 
venge — ^The police instinct — ^Monogamy, polygamy, and 
polyandry — ^The problem of preferential mating pp. 255-280 



CHAPTER X 

Song and cries of birds — Bird-language generally — Extent to 
which the notes are instinctively developed — ^The instinct of 
mimicry — Species which can imitate human speech — ^Problem 
of this ability and extent of exercise of the same — ^Possibility 
of understanding of bird-language by man . pp. 281-292 

CHAPTER XI 

Weapons and fighting methods of birds— Their combats with 
each other and with various natural enemies — Chief enemies 
of birds — The passive resistance of birds to unfavourable 
climate and surroundings — Natural defences — ^Perfection and 
degeneracy of plumage in this connection — Powder-coating of 
some groups pp. 293-302 



viu CONTENTS 



CHAPTER XII 

Special instincts of birds — ^The play of young birds and of adults 
— Bower-builders and their peculiarities — Ornamentation of 
nests — ^The instinct for food-storage in some forms — ^The 
practice of piracy — Toilet and bed- time habits pp. 303-318 



CHAPTER XIII 

Special physiological peculiarities of birds — ^Longevity — Tempera- 
ture of body — Change of colour in bare skin of some, such as 
Turkey — ^The phenomena of the moult — Gradual change in 
colour of bill and feet according to age and sex or season 
— Changes in iris colour — Beak-sheath shedding as in Puffin 

pp. 319-328 

CHAPTER XIV 

Abnormalities — Hybrids, their characteristics and power of repro- 
duction or otherwise — ^Abnormal plumages, such as albinism 
or melanism, temporary or permanent — Overgrowth of claws 
and bill pp. 329-342 



CHAPTER XV 

Relations of birds with men — ^Persecuted species — ^Parasitic or 
commensal species — Domestic forms — Introduced forms and 
the results of introduction .... pp. S^SSS^^ 

INDEX pp. 357-363 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Young of Barn-Owl . 




Back of Frontispiece 


Types of Pheasants .... Frontispiece 


FAaNG PAGE 


The Bird-Colony in the Calcutta Zoo . . lo 


Nest of Sociable Weaver-Birds 


II 


Puffin ..... 




. . 36 


Great Black Woodpecker 






. . 36 


Merganser 






. 36 


Shoveller . 








. . 36 


Flamingoes 








• 37 


AVOCET 








. . 46 


HuiA (Female) . 








. 46 


HuiA (Male) 








. . 46 


Heron .... 








. 46 


Rhinoceros Hor^bill 








• 47 


Spoonbill . 








• 47 


Peregrine Falcon 








• 47 


Flamingo . 








. 47 


Rhinoceros Hornbills 








. 50 


Toco Toucans 








• 51 



IX 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



TO 



Lyre-Birds (Male and Female) 

Imperial Woodpeckers 

BouRu Friar-Bird 

BouRu Oriole, showing resemblance 

Bird ..... 
Young Hoatzin .... 
Brush-Turkey .... 

OvEN-BiRD ..... 

Concave-Casqued Hornbill 

Brazilian Hang-Nest 

Types of Pensile Nests 

Nest of Central-American Swift 

GUACHAROS AND NeST 

Flamingo on its Nest 

SwiFTLETS AND THEIR NeSTS 

Hawk-Cuckoo • OR "Brain-Fever Bird 

Shikra Hawk 

American King-Bird 

King-Crow 

African Jacana . 

Cuban Trogon . 

Gardener Bower-Bird with its Bower 

Newton's Bower-Bird 

Hybrid between Golden Pheasant and Fowl 

Herring Gulls . 



Frla.r- 



FAONG PAGE 

54 



BIRD BEHAVIOUR 



CHAPTER I 

Importance of subject — Incompleteness of our information about 
even the commonest species — Distinction between major 
and minor habits — General activities or tricks of manner — 
Greater importance of the latter in classification — Errors to 
be avoided in observation. 

The Study of birds is often looked down upon by 
general zoologists as a trifling pursuit, and the reason 
of this is not far to seek ; what is called zoology 
nowadays is for the most part the study of com- 
parative anatomy, and from this point of view birds 
are of extremely small interest ; they are remarkably 
uniform in their general structure, and such varia- 
tions of note as do occur are chiefly confined to 
a few flightless families, such as Ostriches and Pen^ 
guins. 

One need not, indeed, be an anatomist to realize 
the comparatively small structural interest of birds ; 
a bird is at once and by everybody recognized as 
such, while among the mammals, their rivals in 
high development, one gets such extraordinarily 
different types as whales, mice, bats, horses, lions, 
I 



2 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

and men, most of whicli differ from each other more 
than the earliest known bird, the Archceofteryx of 
Jurassic times, does from the modern Sparrow in the 
back-garden. 

On the other hand, the numerous species and 
families of birds and their close alliance with each 
other afford, by this very narrow range of differentia- 
tion, an attractive and philosophical study ; among 
them survive types which in mammals have become 
" missing links " or are only discoverable in the 
fossil state. In fact, it is the survival of so many 
connecting forms that makes it so difficult to group 
the families of birds into larger " orders," a difficulty 
which only occurs with mammals when we look 
back among their fossil predecessors preserved among 
the rocks. 

We look, for instance, with interest upon the 
remains of the various ancestral predecessors of the 
horse family, as exhibited in museums, and try to 
realize what changes of habit must have occurred 
to convert a small animal with paws into a large 
one with a single hoofed toe on each foot. But 
among the birds, if we go to the Duck family 
{Anatida) we find still in existence practically all 
the links between a light-bodied, large-v^dnged bird 
with non-waterproof plumage and half-webbed 
feet with large grasping hind-toe, and almost 
exclusively aquatic diving Ducks which rival the 
Grebes and Cormorants in their subaqueous per- 
formances, and exhibit almost as much modification 
of structure. And the habits of these can be 



DUCKS AND EVOLUTION 3 

studied, for they are not only living, but accessible ; 
the semi- wader at the beginning of the series, the 
Australian Magpie-Goose {Anseranas semifalmatd) 
is no rarity, and I have spent much time in study- 
ing a fuU-wringed specimen at Kew, v^rhile the 
habits of many others of the family exemplifying the 
gradations I have mentioned are accessible either to 
direct observation or to any one who can look up 
bird literature. 

In fact, the Duck family is one of the most inter- 
esting of all animal groups for any one interested 
in biological problems, ovdng to the wide distribu- 
tion of its members, their essential and obvious 
alliance combined with equally striking differences 
— some obviously adaptive, others more inexplicable 
— and I shall have a good deal to say about them 
in the course of this book, especially as they are 
familiar exhibits in many public parks, and thus 
available for everybody's observation. 

The availability of birds, as a class, for study gives 
them, in fact, an importance in the study of animal 
habits which fairly outweighs their insignificance 
from the morphological point of view ; and I 
personally have never admitted that the study of 
structure is more important than that of habit, 
considering that it only acquires its pre-eminence 
from the fact of demanding a professional training 
which is the prerogative of a few only. When one 
comes to think of it, we ourselves only surpass the 
other mammals in virtue of our habits, being 
structurally simply monkeys on our hind legs ; yet 



4 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

he would be a bold zoologist who would claim that 
comparative anatomy is a more important study 
than that of the manifold activities of mankind. 
If one admits that the study of habit is to be taken 
seriously — and of late there has been a decided 
trend in that direction — bird-watching needs no 
apology, for the habits of birds are of manifold 
variety, and not by any means fully understood, 
even in the case of the commonest and most familiar 
Species. In fact, these are sometimes, perhaps, less 
well understood than the comparatively inaccessible 
ones ; it has often struck me, in view of the excellent 
observations that have been made of late years in 
the Antarctic by various expeditions, that we know 
more about the mind and life of the Adelie Penguin, 
one of the remotest birds on the globe, than we do 
about those of the Peacock, the best known by sight 
and reputation of all birds for a couple of thousand 
years. 

And here one must bear in mind that an observer 
should be no respecter of persons ornithologically ; a 
bird is not necessarily more worth observing because 
it is difficult of access, and that naturalist was very 
unscientific who said about the Sparrow, " I have 
got into the habit of not noticing this bird." Per- 
sonally I am always seeing something fresh in the 
humble Sparrow's performances, and though my 
taste as a fancier lies in the direction of birds of 
beauty, I must admit that the humbler species 
are often more interesting. But they are not 
necessarily so ; dowdiness is no more a sign of 



FREE AND CAPTIVE BIRDS 5 

intellect in a bird than in a human being, and 
Aristotle was quite right in stigmatizing some birds 
as " dull in colour and leading a dull life," while 
some of those which are stigmatized as " garish " 
possess habits and qualities of surpassing interest, 
the Peacock in particular. I particularly mention 
the Peacock, because it is a purely Indian bird, but 
widely diffused about the world in a domestic 
state ; but its domestication is not rigorous, so to 
speak, and it is allowed to lead practically a natural 
life. This needs to be noticed, because there is a 
regrettable tendency among naturalists to confine 
their observations to the wild birds native to their 
own country, to the neglect of introduced, domes- 
ticated, and captive species. 

A free bird is, of course, other things equal, the 
best and most instructive subject for observation, 
and many habits can only be observed on birds in a 
state of liberty, and in their own country at that ; 
but nevertheless, many very interesting hints may be 
gleaned from the study of birds not so situated, 
and these may always be checked by the study of 
their recorded habits in a natural state. Where 
such records do not exist, the study of captive birds 
is a useful stimulus to field observers to take up the 
matter, and often an observation on a tame or 
captive bird brings out a point which the field 
observer almost necessarily overlooks, owing, in 
many cases, to want of opportunity to discriminate 
between individuals — a point which will become 
evident later on. 



6 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

The best of all birds for observation are, of course, 
those which live in a tame but free state in their 
ov^n country, such as Wood-Pigeons in London, and 
House-Crov7s {Corvus splendens) in Indian towns, 
though even here the difficulty of identifying 
individuals is a drawback. The growing practice 
of ringing birds, however, which is proving so 
useful in throwing light on problems of migration, 
will probably be of service in making records of 
individual birds in the near future, and in this 
connection it is worth noting that spring net-traps 
can be obtained in which many species of birds can 
be readily captured without injury for this purpose. 

In considering the habits of birds we have to 
realize that they fall into two categories, which may 
perhaps be called major and minor habits, or per- 
haps, habits and. customs. By major habits I mean 
the leading and conspicuous life- activities of a 
species ; its food, manner of nesting, mode of 
association (solitary or gregarious), etc. On these 
its life obviously depends, and to them its structure 
is often plainly adapted. Yet, as its life depends on 
the adjustment of its main activities to its sur- 
roundings, it is just these habits that are particularly 
liable to vary even in a state of nature, and especially 
so under the influence of man's interference, direct 
or otherwise. Habits of this sort are fairly, though 
not completely known in the case of a vast number 
of birds, but will always require study, as they are 
so subject to modification by circumstances. 

The minor habits, or mannerisms as we should 



VERSATILITY OF SPARROW 7 

call them in the case of persons, are not nearly so 
familiar, and have not been worked out fully even 
in many very well-known birds. Suqh are pecu- 
liarities in gait, flight, and other actions ; attitudes 
under emotion, positions assumed in repose, etc. 
Often these have no apparent connection with any 
necessity, and they are practically invariable for 
the species and often for the group, and not alter- 
able by circumstances. 

To take a concrete instance ; the common Spar- 
row, as every one knows, eats seed, for the cracking 
of which its bill is specially adapted ; it perches 
in trees, and has feet adapted for grasping twigs ; 
it also builds its nest in trees, and associates in 
pairs and flocks. These are its major habits, and 
every one knows they are subject to modification ; 
it eats many things besides seed, especially remnants 
of man's food ; it builds under eaves as well as 
among boughs, and will sleep in its nest or in a 
crevice of a wall, as well as on a twig, in spite of 
its grasping feet. In spite of its short wings, it 
chases insects in the air, and hovers and drops 
on them in long grass like a miniature Kestrel. 

In other words, its major activities are, though to 
some extent correlated with its structure, highly 
variable, and this, no doubt, is one great reason 
for its success as a species. If actively interfered 
with by man it can vary still more ; a hand-reared 
Sparrow has been known to acquire a Linnet's 
or Canary's song. 

In some points, however, the Sparrow is invari- 



8 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

able ; it never acquires tlie habit of holding down 
its food with one foot, though this would be of 
vital importance to it in enabling it to consume 
large articles of food when perched on a small 
bough, and thus escape risk of ground enemies. 
Though largely a ground-feeder, it hops and does 
not run, and does not hold up its tail to keep it 
clear of wet ; when courting it has a definite 
display, with wings lowered and head and tail 
raised. It rolls in dust as well as washing, a com- 
bination of habits rare among birds, and when 
scratching itself it lowers its wing and raises its foot 
over it. Some of these minor habits may have 
significance, but this is not obvious ; what is obvious 
is that they are common to all Sparrows, and are 
often group-characters ; thus, all the vast group of 
generally small birds — the Passerines, of which the 
Sparrow (Passer) is type and name-father — seem 
to drop a wing when scratching. Habits of this 
kind do not alter even in captive birds, although 
they may learn strange habits of feeding and nesting, 
and even alien songs. 

Hence such characters are often useful in classi- 
fication, just as anatomical characters or inconspicu- 
ous external ones are of more importance than 
the general contour. Thus, all anatomists of late 
years have impressed upon us that the Swallows 
and Swifts must not be considered near relatives 
because of their similar forms — long-winged, small- 
footed, and short-billed — since these may be ac- 
counted for by adaptation to a similar life spent in 



SWIFTS AND SWALLOWS 9 

chasing flying insects, and the anatomical characters 
of the Swifts differ from those of the Swallows, 
which present no important internal differences 
from the ordinary small passerine birds. There 
are small differences also in external characters 
which are not to be correlated with modes of living ; 
the Swifts have but ten tail-feathers to the Swal- 
lows' twelve, and have not the scales on their shanks 
which are usual in birds. There is also a conspicuous 
difference in habit which seems to have no relation 
to utility, and hence is more likely to be a family 
character ; in flight the Swallow every now and 
then draws in its wings to its sides — it still shows a 
sign of the typical small passerine bird's flight 
with its occasional dips with closed wings — while 
the Swift always keeps its wings fully expanded, 
whether skimming motionless or renewing its 
impetus by means of wing-beats. 

Small details of habit are thus always worth 
observing, as they may be more significant than 
they seem, and in any case are good practice in 
observation. 

Some pitfalls in observation or in drawing con- 
clusions from the same need mentioning in con- 
clusion. The danger of the major habits becoming 
modified in captivity or domestication has been 
alluded to, and is, indeed, made rather too much of 
by some writers ; still, it is well to bear it in mind. 
There is also the difficulty of the field observer in 
discriminating between individuals — often between 
the sexes, when these are alike. One must never 



10 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

assume anything ; if a bird is displaying, it is not 
necessarily a male, for instance. Quite apart from 
the fact that in many species the hen is the dominant 
sex, as in Phalaropes and Cassowaries, the hen may 
display even in those in which the male is well 
differentiated and very self-assertive ; thus, I have 
seen a Peahen display to a Peacock, and a hen 
Turkey to the gobbler, these males in both cases 
remaining passive, so that had the sexes been alike, 
one would certainly have been tempted to draw 
very false conclusions about their behaviour. 

Then one must be very cautious in keeping free 
from prepossessions ; it is quite easy to see what 
is not there, if one has some image already in 
one's mind. We laugh at the error of the old 
naturalists who credited the Osprey, as a fishing- 
bird-of-prey, with one taloned foot and one webbed 
one ; these odd extremities no doubt seemed to 
them appropriate, but I have seen almost equally 
gross instances of faulty observation of points of 
form and colour in the work of modern naturalists 
of the best repute. 

Such errors can, of course, easily be checked, but 
when it comes to actions, unless the camera is at hand 
for the recording of such (which can be but rarely 
the case), the evidence is necessarily dependent on 
a number of witnesses. Every one is liable to err, 
and any observer is liable to have the opportunity 
of observing an action or occurrence which is rare 
or strange, and will be disbelieved until some one 
else arises to confirm it. 




liMfe 







-^.^ \ 



^^'^ 



..^S 



NEST OF SOCIABLE WEAVER-BIRDS. 
Republican Grosbeak " was the old name for this Weaver, which is a plain-plumaged. 
Sparrow-like bird. 



^mitJiUi^^^ 



INCONSISTENT CORMORANTS ii 

One should thus be very careful in discrediting 
the observations of others if they do not happen to 
agree with one's own, especially if such were 
recorded many years ago ; a record is not necessarily 
bad because it is ancient, nor good because it is 
new. Even one's own observations may contradict 
each other at times, as happened to me in my 
experience of our wild colony of the small Indian 
Cormorant {Phalacrocorax javanicus) in the Calcutta 
Zoo. These birds came in the evenings to their 
roosting-place on a wooded island in a large pond, 
and usually swooped down, Swallow-fashion, to take 
a drink on the wing before going up to roost. 
This was an unusual feat for a Cormorant to per- 
form (although it must be remembered that this 
species is a light-built, long-tailed bird of only the 
size of a Teal), and, from the way in which the 
birds began to gape before touching the water, 
and often involuntarily checked their way so much 
that they had to settle after all, they evidently found 
it a difficult one. It so happened, too, that once 
for some time they gave the habit up, and settled 
in flocks in the water to drink in the normal way, 
though they afterwards resumed the custom of 
the flying sip ; and I can well imagine that any 
one who had seen them thus drink sitting would 
put down my record of the flying drink as most 
far-fetched and out of all congruity with the 
structure and habits of a Cormorant. 

Very likely the birds had adopted a really new 
habit, in drinking flying ; at any rate, we know 



12 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

new habits do occur — I rather fancy that I dropped 
across one of late, in finding the Sparrows peeling 
off the inner bark of the limes for nesting-material, 
even when they could easily get straw, and I find 
the habit not uncommon in the Regent's Park 
district, as many barked branches testify. 

There is, therefore, always room for observation, 
confirmatory or original, and no conscientious 
observer need fear to record what he or she sees, 
for there is no such thing as authority in science, 
and the veriest beginner may often put the expert 
to the blush. 



CHAPTER II 

The locomotion of birds — Hopping and walking — Reasons for 
adoption of these gaits — Why Waterfowl waddle — Swimming 
and diving — Perching and climbing — ^Different methods of 
performing these actions — Specialized birds which have taken 
to different habits, as Ground-Parrots and Land-Geese — 
Flight and its varieties — Characteristic methods according to 
group and size — Sailing and soaring flight — Speed. 

So old an author as Pliny gives some remarks on the 
locomotion of birds, many of them quite accurate, 
as when he points out that Crows walk and Spar- 
rows and Blackbirds hop. Such differences in 
action are well known to most people, but it is just 
as well to have them summarized. 

The usual gait of birds is a walk, that is to say, 
when they are considered by groups ; it is true the 
majority of small birds one sees are hoppers, but 
that is because the common small birds of most 
parts of the world are passerines, and in this group 
hopping is the usual gait, walking being customary 
only in some of the larger species, such as Crows, 
and in groups which, like Crows, habitually seek 
food or even live on the ground, such as Wagtails, 

X3 



14 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

Pipits, Larks, and Starlings. As passerine birds 
are all primarily adapted for a life in trees, even the 
Larks still having a typical percher's foot, and as 
jumping from bough to bough is a natural and 
habitual movement, it seems natural that this 
should be continued in all except those most 
thoroughly adapted to a ground life. 

The same reasoning applies to the Hornbills, 
among v^hich family are to be found the only large 
birds which hop ; there are two species of this 
usually very short-legged and highly arboreal family 
which have legs of the ordinary length and live 
mostly on the ground, the Ground-Hornbills {Bu- 
corax)y and these move their legs alternately in 
the ordinary walking fashion and are even able to 
run well, which some walking birds do not do — 
most Herons and Storks, for instance. In the case 
of these Hornbills, it is to be noted that the hind 
toe is just as well developed as in the perching 
kinds, and that they walk on the end joints of the 
toes, the ball of the foot being raised above the 
ground, so that one could put a marble under it. 
This would be unique among birds, which usually 
tread on the whole under-surf ace of the toes, where 
these are on the same level — i,e, the hind toe not 
set on higher — ^were it not for the case of the 
Ostrich, which lifts the basal joints of its two 
toes off the ground even more, so that its foot can 
fairly be said to have a pas tern- joint, like that of the 
hoofed beasts with which it habitually grazes. In 
the Ostrich reduction of the toes is carried to an 



HOPPERS AND WALKERS 15 

extreme, but in most running birds the hind toe 
is absent or greatly reduced, and useless, so that 
the case of the Ground-Hornbills, Larks, Desert- 
Choughs (Podoces)^ and other running members of 
perching groups is unique, as they alone of all 
running creatures have the bearing- surface of the 
foot well developed behind as well as in front. 

Unfortunately for our explanation, the Hornbills 
and passerines do not exhaust the list of groups of 
birds in which some members run and others hop ; 
and in the other cases it is difficult to assign a reason 
for the difference of gait. Pigeons, except some 
(not all) of the most terrestrial kinds, are all short- 
legged, and most live largely in trees, but they 
nearly all walk, although some of the most arboreal 
Fruit-Pigeons do hop as well ; I have seen this 
most in the Lilac-crowned Fruit-Pigeon {Ptilofus 
coronulatus). Parrots, again, are mostly tree-birds, 
and all short-legged, some very much so, but they 
generally walk, although the Lories form an excep- 
tion by hopping. Kingfishers do not move on 
their feet at all if they can help it, and all without 
exception are very short on the leg ; yet the great 
Australian Laughing Jackass, which is more of a 
ground-feeder than any other, is a hopper, while 
the few others I have been able to study all walk, 
or rather waddle. So do Bee-eaters, at least the 
Australian and European species (Merops ornatus 
and M. apiaster) ; but of two Indian kinds of 
Nightjars I have seen one walk and the other hop, 
and the only Trogon {Prionotelus temnurus) whose 



^ 



i6 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

gait I have ever studied, hopped; and all these birds 
are short-legged. The shortest-legged Passerines, 
too, are the Swallows, but these walk when on 
the ground instead of hopping. Among Cuckoos 
and Rollers, the practice is more rational, so to speak, 
for the short- legged species hop, while the longer- 
legged Ground- Rollers and the magpie-like Bush- 
Cuckoos, Hke the Indian Crow-Pheasant (Centropus 
sinensis), run. Toucans, Barbets, and Woodpeckers 
all seem to hop, and this about exhausts the list of 
hopping birds, all of which, it will be noticed, are 
essentially perchers, so that hopping undoubtedly has 
something to do with the perching habit. 

Walking-birds, however, may hop when in a 
hurry, as one may see with Rooks, Starlings, and 
even Wood-Pigeons, while birds of prey, which 
normally walk, though but little, hop so readily when 
*' cornered" by a broken wing as to have given rise 
to the notion that hopping is their natural gait. 
Conversely hopping birds of the Thrush tribe often 
take a run for a few feet. Waterfowl have a bad 
name for clumsiness in walking, and certainly some 
of the more specialized kinds waddle awkwardly on 
account of the wide distance between their legs, 
which is convenient for swimming, but necessarily 
produces a rolling gait. This also badly handicaps 
them in perching, which so many of them do, especi- 
ally in hot climates, for they find it difficult to walk 
along a small bough ; and in the case of the perching 
Ducks, the dwarfed hind- toe is of no use for a grip, 
so much so that I have seen such active species as 



PERCHERS AND CLIMBERS 17 

the Mandarin Duck and Andaman Teal {Nettium 
albigulare) slide right over and off a perch on 
which they had tried to alight. Only Cormorants 
and Darters among waterfowl seem at all at home 
in trees, and these have a powerful gripping foot 
with well-developed hind-toe, and more freedom 
in the legs than is usual in diving birds. 

In travelling along a perch, the most active, as 
well as the clumsiest perchers, are apt to move 
sideways ; thus the lively Sparrow and the heavy 
Cormorant both sidle on a bough, though the 
ground-living Fowl and the arboreal Parrot walk 
foot over foot, for which the in-turned feet of the 
latter are particularly suitable. The most active 
birds at this pole-walking are the Guans and the 
Touracous, which run along boughs like squirrels, 
and at the same time can leap long distances from 
one perch to another; but on the whole, the 
more active the bird, the more apt it is to adopt 
the sidelong gait on a bough, often turning round 
with each hop, a method of procedure which seems 
calculated to make it giddy. 

In climbing, several methods are employed ; 
Parrots, as every one has seen, hook themselves 
along with their beaks as well as their claws, though 
they do not do this in the wild state as much as one 
would think from seeing them caged ; and Cross- 
bills, those Parrot-like Finches, climb in the same 
way. Woodpeckers and typical Creepers, however, 
climb quite differently from Parrots, but like each 
other, though the last group are Passerines and not 
2 



dstecas^aasii. 



1 8 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

related to the former ; both hop upwards or side- 
ways on boughs and trunks, resting on their stiff- 
pointed tails, and letting themselves slip back if, 
which is seldom the case, they want to descend. 
The Nuthatch, which is not stiff-tailed, has the 
advantage of these extreme specialists in being able 
to climb in any direction, down as well as up. 

Swimming is generally performed by alternate 
strokes of the feet when the bird is on the sur- 
face, and simultaneous strokes when it dives ; 
but Auks, though they swim like other birds on 
the surface, propel themselves when below with 
their half-closed wings, and the Penguins never 
use their feet in the water at all, apparently, but 
rely entirely, both on and under the surface, on 
their flipper- like wings. Land-birds can gener- 
ally swim if they are put to it, those which run 
swimming with their legs — I have seen a young 
Peacock thus save himself ; those which rely on 
their wings will flap themselves ashore, which I 
have seen a Swallow do after it had fallen in ; but 
they soon become draggled and ' exhausted, and 
except for the large flightless runners, cannot go 
any distance, in spite of being unable to sink. The 
giant runners, however, are as strong swimmers as 
beasts. I have known of a Cassowary making land 
after a four miles' swim in a by no means calm 
sea. Land-birds when swimming sink low in the 
water, but, curiously enough, so do some of the most 
specialized divers ; the Cormorants swim with the 
tail awash, and the allied Darters only show the 



LAND GEESE AND GROUND-PARROTS 19 

head and long neck above water, most amply 
justifying the name of Snake-bird given to the 
Indian species. 

It is curious to note how one finds some swimming 
birds completely deserting the water, and taking 
to a land life, though still retaining nearly complete 
webs to the feet; for instance, the Australian 
Cereopsis Goose (Cereopsis novce-hollandice) seems 
never to go into water except to wash, or to escape 
when wounded, and the Hawaiian Goose {Nesochen 
sandmce?isis), which lives on the old lava-flows in 
the mountains of its native islands, exists, during 
most of the year at any rate, without any water at 
all, even for drinking, getting the needful moisture 
from its food of berries and succulent herbs like 
sow-thistle. Conversely, we have, in the Dippers 
or Water-Ousels, Thrushes with ordinary perching 
feet which swim and dive. 

So also one may find the Parrots, so peculiarly 
adapted for a life in trees, keeping not only to 
ground life like Partridges in the case of the Aus- 
tralian Ground-Parrakeet (Pezoporus formosus) and 
Night-Parrakeet (Geopsittacus occidentalis), but even 
waxing fat and losing the power of flight, in the 
case of the New Zealand Kakapo or Owl-Parrot 
(Stringops habroptilus), which looks like a gigantic 
degenerate form of the last. And among Cuckoos, 
birds also specialized mostly for tree-life, we have 
the swiftest runner of all birds in the American Road- 
runner or Chaparral-cock (Geococcyx mexicanus), 
which is only about the size of a Magpie, and yet 



20 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

can run for hundreds of yards ahead of a horse or 
dog, being thus proportionately swifter than the 
Ostrich. It is curious, by the way, that no hopping 
bird attains high speed or power of long-distance 
travelling on foot, although, judging from what 
Kangaroos and Jerboas can do in this way, one 
certainly would have expected this to happen. 

In the flight of birds there is of course less possible 
variation than in their movements on land and 
trees, or in water, but still there are some very 
characteristic differences. What may be called the 
normal or usual flight is by continuous strokes, as 
is usual in Pigeons, and universal in the Duck 
tribe ; but this progression may be interrupted 
either by sailing intervals, both by slow-flapping 
birds like the Gannet, or quick-whirring ones like 
the Partridge; or by closing the wings and so 
dropping, to rise again with a fresh flutter, which 
is the usual method in Passerine birds. Wood- 
peckers, and Barbets, all tree-birds or relatives of 
such, be it noted, and most of them small, so that 
the method is probably adopted to gain impetus : 
just as many birds, such as Ducks and Parrots, roll 
much in their flight, apparently to put a '' screw " 
on to themselves and increase pace. In the Hoopoe 
the flap and closure of the wings alternate so quickly 
that the bird looks just like a big butterfly. 

The resemblance of many Parrots to wildfowl in 
their flight is indeed curious ; both groups stretch 
out their necks in front and their feet behind, 
although this backward extension of the feet was 



SOAKERS AND SAILERS 21 

supposed to be a speciality of the long-legged 
waders, the extended limbs acting as a rudder. 
But as a matter of fact the extension of the legs 
behind in flight is normal among birds generally, 
the only groups that draw up their legs to the 
breast being Passerines, Woodpeckers, Barbets, and 
Hoopoes, all undulating flyers. 

The extension of the neck is also normal in many 
groups, but Passerines, Hoopoes, Rollers, birds of 
prey, Herons, Pelicans, Frigate-Birds, Petrels, Gulls, 
Shore-Birds, and the Carrion-Storks {Leftoftilus) 
draw it in, so that here there is more latitude 
allowed, so to speak. The finest flyers of all seem 
generally to favour the drawn-in neck, at any rate 
that is the pose with Eagles, Vultures, and Alba- 
trosses, whose powers of maintaining flight for long 
periods together without movement of the wings 
have always evoked admiration, and still remain 
unexplained. Albatrosses have narrow though very 
long wings, and usually fly low ; the overland 
soarers have shorter but very broad wings, and only 
sail when flying high. Both groups, however, are 
noticeably large birds ; small birds of any groups, 
no matter how well-winged, never soar or sail very 
far. This may be due to the need for weight to 
give steadiness, but it is at least quite as likely that 
it is connected with the more lively disposition of 
small species, and with their habit and need of 
picking up their food in small bits at frequent 
intervals, so that they never have either the time 
or inclination for soaring. 



22 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

In respect of the activities of the soaring birds of 
prey, it has been noted that the highest soarers are 
the latest to rise, the Vultures not taking the sky 
till after the Kites, and none soaring till the sun is 
well up, and it has been suggested that sun-lit air 
has some favourable influence on soaring. Even 
over here I have observed that a fine, sunny day in 
winter or early spring will set the Black-headed 
Gulls on the Thames soaring, but I always put this 
down to their being inspired by the fine weather 
with thoughts of their home br.eeding-grounds, and 
a preparation for travelling thither ; while I 
should have said that the connection between sun 
and soaring in the East was simply that the larger 
carrion-feeders needed clearer air, and had to 
mount higher, as their food was harder to find ; 
but after an absence of a dozen years from India I 
am quite wilHng to admit I may be mistaken. 
However, sunny weather in autumn does not 
seem to take the Gulls aloft, as I have had an oppor- 
tunity of observing recently. 

It is noticeable that soaring birds are never still, 
but keep on describing circles as they float on 
extended motionless wings ; as a matter of fact 
they appear to descend a little and then use the 
impetus thus gained to rise again, so that they are 
really making spirals. A bird, except in a strong 
wind, can only stand still in the air by constant and 
rapid vnng- action ; this is the feat of hovering, of 
which the Kestrel is the most familiar exponent in 
this country during most of the year, though the 



FLIGHT OF HUMMING-BIRDS 23 

Sparrow frequently practises the trick over long 
grass in summer in order to locate insect prey. 
The Kingfisher also frequently hovers, when a 
handy perch to swoop from is not available, and 
in India the Pied Kingfisher is the most familiar of 
hovering birds, this species seeming always to 
make its survey of the fishing-ground on the wing. 

Hoverers of the more skilled types raise and lower 
themselves with great ease and skill, such flying 
reaching its perfection in the Humming-birds, 
which almost invariably hover when feeding, and 
dart sideways or even backwards as unconcernedly as 
dragon-flies. They seem indeed to represent these 
insects in the bird world, for like them they are 
no pedestrians, only using their feet for perching 
or clinging, since if any bird is unable to progress 
on the ground it would appear to be these, and 
they seldom shift their position even when perched. 

In conformity with their insect-like flight, the 
wings of the Humming-birds are much like those 
of insects in shape, the segments of the arm between 
the pinion and the body being much reduced, so 
that there is little action except from the shoulder. 
Not all of them, however, move their wings with 
the insect-like quickness which in the small kinds 
results in the hum that gives these truly fairy 
creatures their name, for the largest species {Pata- 
gona gigas), which is as big as a Swift, flaps its wings 
at an ordinary rate of speed and quite visibly. The 
slowing of the wing-stroke in accordance with 
increase of size seems to be a general rule in birds, 



24 



BIRD BEHAVIOUR 



always supposing t^ose of the same family are 
compared ; thus the common Grey Heron flaps 
in a very leisurely way, while the little Dwarf 
Bitterns {Ardetta) use a quick fluttering stroke like 
a Moorhen, and the slow heavy sweeps of the 
Goose contrast forcibly with the quick wing-beats 
of the Duck. 

Comparing a Duck and a Heron of about the 
same size, however, the Duck will be found to 
move its wings more quickly, the Ducks being a 
quick- action family as a whole, and the Herons a 
^ slow one. This makes the comparatively quick 
action of the small Herons interesting, as the mngs in 
all this family are large for the weight of the very 
light body, so that we must not suppose that quick 
wing-action is always connected with small wing- 
area, though this is often the case, as in such birds 
as Auks, where the wing has been reduced, to serve 
also as an oar, to the minimum size consistent 
with flight. The Great Auk went further — and 
fared worse, for when man came upon the scene 
some time in the Stone Age, it began to discover 
the disadvantages of turning its pinions completely 
into paddles. 

The great soaring and sailing birds also find they 
" cannot have it both ways " ; they are adepts at 
saving their petrol, so to speak, and this is a point 
which aviators would do well to study, as it would 
be of great advantage if they could circle by the 
hour without using their engines ; but they are 
bad and heav)^ starters, rising at a low angle and 



DEATH-TRAPS FOR PIRATES 25 

with great effort. This is particularly the case 
with the Albatrosses, which have sacrificed muscular 
power to gliding capacity, and elongated and nar- 
rowed their wings, to a very risky extent. 

On the Australian coast there is a valley ending 
in a cliff-wall which is a regular death-trap for the 
local Albatrosses which pass over it on their way 
home to a breeding-ground. If, when coasting 
over this hollow, they dip between the walls, they 
lose the wind, begin to drop, and not having suffi- 
cient strength of wing-beat to *'get up steam " in 
the limited space in front of them, end by colliding 
with the cliff at the end of the gully, when they 
fall to the ground to die a lingering death from 
hunger, for the walls of the valley are too steep 
for them to climb, and they have not enough 
intelligence and enterprise to explore a cave at 
the cliff- foot which would lead them out into the 
open again. 

Another example of the dangers of over- develop- 
ment of wings is to be found in the appropriate 
fate of hanging that now and then befalls the piratical 
Frigate-bird in the West Indies, as described by 
Dr. P. Lowe ; this species, like so many tropical 
waterfowl, frequents trees, but may easily miss its 
footing when alighting and slip down among the 
twigs, where its great wings cannot have full 
play, and it is exceedingly likely to catch its neck 
in a fork, when its very much reduced feet are of 
little use in its attempts to extricate itself, and 
it soon perishes. 



z6 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

The Frigate-bird is, however, a better starter 
than the Albatross, being able to " take of! " at 
once. Tlie easiest of all starters are the Gulls, 
for they can spring up from a sitting position if 
they like, without troubling to rise to their feet. 
When Swifts start off the ground, they seem to 
" take off " with their wings, like Bats when simi- 
larly situated ; the idea that they cannot thus 
rise is certainly erroneous so far as the common 
House- Swift of India {Cypelus affinis) is concerned, 
as I have proved by repeated experiments. With 
regard to the power of springing up vertically at 
the start, the Game-birds are unrivalled, on account 
of their muscular power both in legs and wings. 

The best settlers seem to be the Hawks ; it is 
delightful to observe one of these birds just glide 
up to a perch and touch it at exactly the right 
moment, no final flapping being required ; such 
accuracy of action being no doubt a necessary 
accomplishment in birds which have to grasp food 
when in flight and avoid injuring themselves by 
concussion in so doing. But such skill has to be 
acquired with practice ;; I have seen a young Kite 
in India plunge up to its belly in a pond when 
picking up an object which an old one would 
have skimmed off with hardly a ripple. As a 
contrast to the skill of the Hawks, we may take the 
awkwardness of the Grebes, which trail their legs 
even when alighting and strike the water anyhow. 

I am sorry I never noted what, if any, difference 
there is between young and old Kites in the matter 



QUADRUPEDAL LOCOMOTION 27 

of soaring ability ; but BuUer, in his " Birds of 
New Zealand," mentions that the immature speci- 
mens of the very common Harrier of that country 
(Circus gouldi), which are more conspicuously differ- 
ent in colour from the adults than are the young 
Indian Kites, do not soar as the old ones do, so 
that they are often taken for a diiferient species of 
Hawk altogether. 

In very rare instances young birds may even fly 
better than adults ; this is the case, according to 
Mr. W. H. Hudson, with the common Tinamous 
of Argentina ; and in that very curious bird the 
great grey Steamer-Duck of the coasts of southern 
South America (Micropterus cinereus), only the 
younger individuals seem to be able to fly at all, 
the older birds becoming so heavy that their small 
wings simply serve to support and assist them when 
running on the surface of the water, a curious 
quadrupedal mode of locomotion which has attracted 
the attention of all observers, but seems only to 
have been fully and exactly described by Mr. M. 
NicoU in his admirable work on his experiences as 
a naturalist in the cruises of the Earl of Crawford's 
yacht the Valhalla, So fast can these huge Ducks 
^^ steam " along, he tells us, that a six-oared boat 
cannot overtake them or even come within shot. 

Quadrupedal locomotion on land is found in the 
case of the Penguins, which when pressed will use 
their flipper-wings as fore-legs, the species which 
inhabit snowy regions tobogganing along most 
effectually in this way. As we shall see later, also, 



28 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

some young birds, even among those of our own 
country, employ quadrupedal locomotion. 

With regard to the speed of birds in flight, some 
very " tall " statements, especially of German 
manufacture, have been circulated ; for there is a 
strong tendency to exaggeration about this point. 
Before steam-engines came in, the speed of birds' 
flight could not be so well estimated as it can 
now; as Newton justly remarks in his famous 
" Dictionary of Birds," the Swallow does not usually 
travel so fast as an ordinary express train ; and 
yet this bird is proverbial for swiftness. The speed 
of the common Pigeon is also well known ov^ing to 
the popularity of Pigeon-races, and these show 
that it is a good Pigeon that can do its fifty miles 
an hour ; while the most ordinary observation 
shows that the Pigeon, though not nearly equal in 
swiftness to the Swallow, is yet much faster than 
the majority of birds. 

The speed of small birds tends to be exaggerated, 
owing no doubt to the quickness with which they 
move their wings ; thus, Common Teal are credited 
with being the fastest of Ducks by some writers, 
but this can hardly be the case, for in India the 
Shoveller, and even the heavy Spotted-billed Duck 
{Anas fcecilorhyncha) — the Mallard of India — have 
been recorded as leading a bunch of Teal; and in 
America a flock of the very closely allied Green- 
winged Teal {Nettium carolinense) have been seen 
so hard pressed by the apparently slow- flying 
White-headed Eagle that they had in desperation 



RECORD PACE-MAKERS 29 

to drop into the water headlong, a common man- 
oeuvre with Ducks when a pursuer's speed is too 
much for them. 

The slow-flapping flight of large birds as com-' 
pared with their more briskly moving relatives in 
the same family has long been recognized by sports- 
men as very deceptive ; wild Swans, Capercailzie, 
and wild Peafowl are all birds which need the shot 
to be aimed well forward if they are to be fatally 
hit, their flight being so very much faster than it '' 
looks, especially to a shooter who has been used 
to smaller fry. 

The fastest birds of all appear to be, as one would 
expect, some of the Swifts, the palm among these 
being assigned by Blanford, in the " Fauna of 
British India," to the larger species of Spine-tails 
{Chatura)^ which are stated by observers to whizz 
by with a twang like a bowstring. It is noticeable 
that the spiny-tipped tail in these birds, which, 
like the similarly armed tail of most Woodpeckers 
and Creepers, serves as a support when the owner 
is clinging perpendicularly, is so short that it cannot 
be of much use in directing their flight, and in 
fact the Swifts generally, though better flyers than 
Swallows, distinctly tend to be shorter in the 
tail, and often dispense with the fork. 

In fact, the opposite development of the tail in 
birds which fly well is very curious, some fine flyers 
having a long forked tail, like Swallows,, Terns, 
and Frigate-birds, while others, like the above- 
mentioned Swifts, most Albatrosses and Vultures, 



30 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

and that aerial acrobat the Bateleur Eagle {Helo- 
tarsus ecaudatus) seem to have gone in for tail- 
reduction, so that the steerage, etc., is evidently 
given over entirely to the wings in their case. 
The steering action of the tail is particularly 
observable in Kites, in v^hich that member is often 
turned almost into a vertical plane, and this charac- 
teristic action v^as noted by the ancient Romans, 
PHny suggesting that it was the Kite that taught 
men the use of a rudder to a ship. 

Generally speaking, however, the most important 
use of the tail is as a brake when descending ; why 
it is always expanded at starting is not so obvious, 
and probably the action is an involuntary one, like 
the dropping of the legs by Gulls and Crows when 
they check in their flight, a habit which has led 
some observers into the mistaken idea that Crowds, 
when picking food off water, do so wdth their 
feet, which is never the case so far as I have 
observed. 

Mere speed of flight, by the way, is not neces- 
sarily so indispensable an asset for escaping aerial 
enemies as may be supposed ; Swallows and Swifts 
certainly suffer little from birds of prey, the Hobby 
being the only Falcon which ordinarily catches 
them, and the swift Sand-Grouse, among ground- 
birds, are too much for most Falcons. But some 
quite slow birds are also very difficult subjects for 
Hawks, owing to the facility with which they 
shift from the stroke, the Hoopoe and Lapwing 
being notorious for their abilities in this respect ; 



TERNS AND TROPIC-BIRDS 31 

while as to the slow-flying Grass-Owl of the East 
(Strix Candida), a near relative of the Barn-Owl, 
Indian falconers say it is one of the birds which 
" will show you the stars," in allusion to its habit 
of " ringing up " and thus escaping the pursuit of 
their Falcons. 

The flight of various birds, indeed, admirably 
bears out the old "horsy" proverb, "They run 
in all shapes " ; one often cannot at all predict 
what a bird's flight will be like from looking at a 
dead or caged specimen. Terns, for instance, are 
so Swallow-like in build that they are often and 
quite reasonably called sea-swallows, but their 
flight is not at all Swallow-like, though recognizably 
like that of their family relatives, the Gulls. Tropic- 
birds (Phaethon) look very like Terns, and feed in 
the same way, but their flight is not at all like 
that of a Tern, but is performed with quick wing- 
beats, like that of a Duck. 

It thus differs much from that of all other long- 
winged sea-fowl, but much resembles that of the 
swift-flying Ring-necked Parrakeets {Palcsornis) ; 
and it is curious that the Tropic-bird has the long 
pointed tail one usually associates with a Parrakeet. 
Generally this wedge-shaped tail is favoured more 
by ground-birds like the Pheasant than by fine 
flyers, but besides the Tropic-birds, the Skuas also 
possess it, and they are experts, being able in the 
course of their piratical profession to fly down the 
Terns, which have the forked tail usually associated 
with dexterous flight, and very seldom found in 



32 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

ground-birds, the Blackcock being the best-known 
exception. 

Short- winged birds may display a quite unexpected 
power of flight ; thus the Jay flaps along with 
slow beats like its far longer- winged relative the 
Crow, can fly fast if it likes, or swoop in an almost 
Hawk- like way, and often crosses the North Sea 
on migration. On the other hand, birds with 
large long wings may be, in rare cases, very poor 
flyers, as in the case of the Secretary-bird of Africa, 
this strange pedestrian Eagle having so neglected 
its wings that its flight, although of Eagle-like 
stateliness, is very weak, and the bird can even be 
run down by greyhounds, just as the short- winged 
heavy Wild Turkey is. 

There are stories of Great Bustards being coursed 
by greyhounds, and Xenophon says positively that 
in the historic retreat of the Ten Thousand the 
Greeks rode them down, " for they fly only a short 
distance like Partridges, and soon give in." It 
seems to me quite possible that this Bustard was 
in former times on the way to degenerating into 
the state of the Steamer-Duck above mentioned, 
and that increasing persecution by man has simply 
eliminated degenerate individuals, as the bird is 
now a strong flyer and goes long distances. 



CHAPTER III 

The nutrition of birds — Various kinds of food, animal and vege- 
table — ^Methods of and adaptations for obtaining it — Changes 
of diet — Gluttony of some species — Power of discrimination 
among foods, both vegetable and animal — ^The much-discussed 
relations of birds to insects, especially butterflies. 

" Worms and flies," mentioned by Shakespeare in 
Macbeth as the food of birds, are certainly the 
staple of the large majority of the class, at any 
rate if we take both terms in the wide old-fashioned 
sense, in which a worm meant anything long- 
shaped, and a fly almost any flying insect ; for on 
small invertebrate life birds mostly depend, and 
even when the old birds are mainly or largely vege- 
tarian, the young feed, or are fed by their parents, 
on animal food in perhaps the majority of cases. 

This diet is probably ancestral, for it is at least 
probable that the reptilian ancestors of birds were 
largely if not mainly animal-feeders, and thus the 
young only go back, as in so many cases in nature, 
to the early diet of the race. But just as even 
among the reptiles there are some mainly vegetarian 
kinds, such as some iguanas, the land-tortoises, 
3 33 



34 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

and some of the terrapins and turtles, so there are 
certain families of birds, and sub-groups of other 
families, which are mainly vegetarian in diet, as 
implied above. Some of these groups are large 
or important, and therefore well-known, such as 
Parrots, Pigeons, Game-birds, Finches, Cranes, and 
Geese ; among small and less familiar groups of 
vegetable-eating proclivities are Ostriches and all 
the other giant flightless birds — Emus, Cassowaries, 
and Rheas, their relatives the Tinamous (the 
" Partridges " of South America), the Seed-Snipes 
{Thinocorythidce), the Sand-Grouse, the Screamers 
iPalamedeidce)^ and among the less familiar perchers 
the Touracous or Plantain-eaters {Musofhagidce), 
the Colies or Mouse-birds (Coliida), and the 
nectar-sucking Humming-birds. 

Many if not all of these take more or less insect 
or other animal food as well ; there seems to be no 
group of any size so purely addicted to vegetable 
food as certain of the animal-feeding families or 
groups are to an animal diet. Such pure animal 
feeders are especially to be found among those 
wnich take larger prey than insects, especially the 
lish-eaters ; Gannets, Cormorants, Pelicans, and the 
Frigate- and Tropic-birds seem to be purely animal- 
feeders, though the Gulls, and even the oceanic 
Petrels, take some vegetable food. 

The " birds of prey," as one would expect, are 
generally purely carnivorous or insectivorous, though 
some Vultures will eat fruit ; the South-American 
Vultures feed on palm-fruits, and the Egyptian 



ODDITIES IN DIET 35 

Vulture will devour not only spoilt figs, as recorded 
by Tristram, but even despoil date-trees of their 
crop. So also among birds generally regarded as 
purely insectivorous, Swallows in North America 
are known to feed on the berry of the Wax-Myrtle 
{Myrica cerifera) in autumn, and among the worm- 
eating waders the Ruff and the Black-tailed Godwit 
eagerly devour rice and other grain, such as wheat 
and millet. 

The Game-birds would perhaps be better regarded 
as omnivorous, like the Rails, and most fruit-eaters, 
like Toucans and Hornbills, eat small animals 
freely when they can catch them. The Barbets, 
which seem to be the unspecialized ancestors of 
the Toucans — if these really are a distinct family 
at all — show a curious contrast in habit according 
to their distribution, though all much alike in 
structure ; the Asiatic species are mostly fruit- 
eaters, while the African and South American species 
are largely insectivorous. With the Trogons, which 
have an equally wide distribution and are still 
more alike structurally, matters are almost exactly 
the other way about ; the old-world species, chiefly 
to be found in Asia, though one or two are African, 
being insectivorous, while the American kinds live 
mainly on berries, which they gather on the wing. 

One interesting point comes out from this con- 
sideration of bird-diet, and that is, that the largest 
birds, and those which, as groups, display the finest 
plumage, are more or less vegetarian, while those 
whose power of flight is pre-eminent range them- 



36 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

selves in the animal-feeding section; though it 
must be remembered also that a vast number of 
insectivorous or mixed feeders have weak powers 
of flight and very sedentary habits, such as the 
host of small insectivorous birds resident permanently 
in the tropics. 

The majority of birds show little or no specializa- 
tion for the purpose of food-getting ; that is to 
say, one very generally cannot tell from the look 
of a bird whether it lives mainly on animal or 
vegetable food. For instance, Pigeons, as has been 
said above, are mainly vegetarian, and Plovers are 
chiefly worm- and insect-eaters ; yet the bills of 
the two groups are singularly alike, and the vege- 
table-eating Cranes are so like the animal-feeding 
Storks and Herons that people who are not used to 
birds constantly confuse them with each other. 
Similarly, it is curious that the Parrots, some of the 
strictest vegetarians, have bills more like those of 
the very carnivorous Hawks and Owls than like 
those of any other birds ; and when it comes to 
the hosts of passerine birds with the ordinary 
unspecialized type of beak, observation alone can 
tell what their diet is. 

There are, however, plenty of well-known and 
conspicuous cases where structure and habit go 
closely together ; to take a very familiar case, it is 
easy to see that the thick, short conical bill of a 
Finch is correlated with the habit of cracking seed- 
husks, and the long pouch-bearing bill of a Pelican 
is obviously especially adapted for catching fish. 




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FLAMINGOES. 

The species here represented is the Common Flamingo, the only one found in Europe ; it 

may generally be seen in the Bitter I.akes, by the Suez Canal. 

[By permission of the artist, Sir Harry Johnston, G.C.M.G. 



NETTING AND SIFTING 37 

Few people, by the way, realize how a Pelican's bill 
works ; it is not a fish-creel, but a dip-net ; when 
the bird is fishing, the elastic branches of the lower 
jaw expand into a great skin-floored spoon, and 
scoop up the prey, contracting again when this is 
captured. 

The beautiful sifting-arrangement of rows of 
horny plates along the bills of the typical Ducks is 
one that can easily be seen in action, and it serves 
for collecting not only animal but vegetable food 
from water or mud ; in the grazing Geese and the 
fishing Mergansers the ridges take the form of 
teeth, since here biting rather than sifting is needed. 
The perfection of the sifting apparatus is, as Dar- 
win pointed out, found in the bill of the Shoveller 
Duck, where the ridges almost equal in propor- 
tionate length the whalebone of some of the whales ; 
and the Shoveller seems consequently to be able to 
extract nutriment from water in which the other 
Ducks find " bibbling " unprofitable. 

The simplest form of the ridge-row is to be 
found, as might be expected, in the Magpie-Goose 
above noted, in which it is hardly more pronounced 
than the " burring," like that of the ends of a pair 
of forceps, to be found in the beak of the Emu. 
Nevertheless the Magpie-Goose ^' bibbles " like a 
Duck, and does so habitually, unlike the true graz- 
ing Geese, though these will use their grazing bills 
in this way occasionally ; recently, in autumn, I 
saw no less than four species of Geese, the Common, 
Chinese, Canadian, and Bernicle, sifting in this 



38 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

manner the water in the roadside gutters, filled 
with dead leaves, on a wet afternoon in Hyde Park. 
The Magpie-Goose, however, also grazes at times, 
but is particularly fond of digging and tearing with 
its bill at mud and roots, though I have so far not 
been able quite to make out what it gets when thus 
engaged. 

It will be noticed that the Common Duck, with 
its specialized bill, keeps up the varied methods of 
feeding noted in this primitive-looking relative, 
though the Shoveller has practically become a 
sifter pure and simple. The diving Ducks, al- 
though having a sifting beak, seem to use it very 
little, for when one watches them feeding in clear 
water they seem to simply pick up their food from 
the bottom, darting hither and thither, and not 
working away in the same place. Small portions 
they can swallow below the surface, but have to 
come up with a large mouthful, such as a water- 
snail. Such molluscs form a large proportion of 
the food of Ducks and other water-birds, and 
land-shells, as all know, are eaten by land-birds, 
though generally these are small specimens which 
are eaten whole, the Song-Thrush being exceptional 
in its habit of dashing large specimens on stones 
in order to chip off their shells and prepare them 
for food. 

There are several other kinds of specialized 
mollusc-eaters, notably the shell-eating Storks of 
the genus Jnastomus, called " Open-bills " from 
the fact that their beaks gape in the middle in 



DUCKS AND FLAMINGOES 39 

adults ; of these there is a black African species 
and a pied Asiatic one. These birds have a fringe 
of horny growths towards the tip of the beak, at 
any rate in adults (for they are absent in the young 
of the Asiatic kind) ; and this renders the peculiarity 
of the sifting structure of the Duck's bill being 
repeated in the Flamingoes of less value as an 
evidence of affinity. 

Indeed, although many of the less-informed 
naturalists seem to regard the Flamingoes as simply 
Roman- nosed Ducks on stilts, anatomists find them 
to be more closely related to the Storks ; and their 
bibbling performances, though similar in principle 
to those of the Ducks, are carried on with a curious 
difference in detail. In the Ducks the bill has the 
upper jaw far the larger, the lower fitting within 
it ; in the Flamingoes the bill is constructed in 
just the opposite way — the lower jaw being so much 
deeper than the upper that the latter simply is to it 
as the lid of a box, or in some species shuts within 
its edges. Being also very freely moveable, it plays 
like the lower jaw of the Duck, and acts as such, 
for the Flamingo feeds with its bill upside down, 
as many must have observed at zoological gardens 
where these most interesting birds are kept. 

Judging from their behaviour there, they can 
extract food from water which affords nothing to 
the Ducks — except perhaps Shovellers — and this, 
added to their habit of frequenting salt-lakes, 
avoided by most other birds, is no doubt a great 
asset in the struggle for existence to these unprolific 



40 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

and very helpless creatures. Like Ducks, they eat 
both animal and vegetable food, and in captivity 
eat and thrive on such an unnatural diet as grain. 
In both Ducks and Flamingoes the sifting apparatus 
is found along the edges of both jaws, but in some 
of the Petrels there is found a similar structure for 
extracting food suspended in water which still more 
recalls that of the whalebone whales, in which the 
so-called " bone " (which is really horn) is confined 
to the upper jaw, by being similarly limited to the 
upper bill. 

These Petrels, called Whale-birds by sailors, 
belong to the genus Prion of naturalists ; they are 
small birds about as big as Doves, of a pigeon-blue 
colour, and display a beautiful gradation from a 
bill which is quite ordinary except for the ridges 
visible in it when opened to one which is so bulged 
out at the sides, and has such long fringes, that the 
caricature of a whale's head is at once obvious. 
Yet the species are so closely related that it is quite 
difficult to separate them, so that here is evidently 
a case where evolution is comparatively recent and 
has not resulted in any decided differentiation. 

To return to the subject of mollusc-eating birds, 
from which we have been led by the consideration 
of these fringed-billed birds, whose " dentition," if 
we may use the expression, is just as worthy of study 
as' the true teeth of beasts or reptiles ; we find in 
the Oyster-Catchers {Hamatofus) which, some pied 
like our own, and some black, haunt sea-coasts 
nearly everywhere, a special weapon for getting to 



EXPERIMENTAL BORINGS 41 

terms with shellfish in a very hard, chisel- tipped, 
bill, strikingly different from the soft weak bills 
of the majority of the Snipe family {Charadnidce) 
to which they so obviously belong by the rest of 
their structure. With this they can prise limpets 
off the rocks, and adroitly chisel out the meat of 
other shellfish, while at the same time the tool is 
an efficient weapon as well, like the axe in the hands 
of early man, and nest-robbing Gulls and Crows 
find the Oyster-Catcher's home a difficult proposi- 
tion to tackle. 

The most typical bills in the Snipe family have a 
beautiful adaptation to the " Diet of Worms " ; 
in the Woodcock and other typical Snipes the bill 
is " overshot," that is to say, the upper jaw dis- 
tinctly excieeds the lower in length, and has a 
knobbed tip somewhat like the end of a crochet- 
hook, behind which the lower jaw fits accurately, 
so that the bill can be driven into the mud or soft 
ground with ease. At the same time the bill is 
so soft and sensitive that when the bird has been 
dead a little time the end is seen to be pitted like 
a thimble by the shrinkage of the covering skin 
owing to the drying of the soft nerve-tissue within, 
and the upper jaw is so flexible that the bill will 
open at the tip and remain closed for the rest of its 
length. Thus it can grip a worm when felt without 
the necessity of being opened entirely, which would 
be a difficult matter for a bird of this size ; the 
worm when seized is, so to speak, nibbled up, not 
dropped down the throat with a jerk of the uplifted 



42 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

head, as is so often seen to be done in the feeding 
of long-billed birds. At the same time, so that the 
bird can keep a look about it when its bill is driven 
into the soil, the eyes are situated far back in the 
head, reminding one of the similar shifting back of 
the eyes in the most highly developed grazing 
beasts, such as horses and cattle, though here the 
necessity for deep-rooting molars is given as the 
reason. 

Structure and function correspond very closely in 
the Snipe group ; for instance, the Common Snipe 
(Scolopax gallinago) and its East Asiatic ally the 
Pintail Snipe (5. stenura), which are exceedingly 
alike in size and plumage — the curious narrow 
feathers in the tail of the latter not being noticeable 
till looked for — can be quite easily separated by 
the difference in the bill, expanded at the tip in 
the common species, and of uniform calibre in the 
Pintail ; and their habits correspond, the Common 
Snipe being mainly a mud-feeder and worm- 
catcher, while the other often feeds on dry ground 
and has a more varied menu, including land-insects 
and land-shells to a great extent. Through the 
Sandpipers of different sorts a gradation can be 
traced from these specialized bills to the short 
pigeon-like ones of the Plovers, with their normally 
placed eyes. Yet these are also worm-eaters and 
borers to some extent, so that here, as in the case 
of the Duck tribe, we can trace the evolution of 
structure and habit most satisfactorily. 

Two or three interesting little off- shoots of this 



THE TURNSTONE AT ITS TRADE 43 

family of mudlarks need noticing. The Turnstone 
(Strepsilas interpres), well known on all coasts in 
the winter, is a thick-set little bird with a plain, 
short, straight, hard beak, in which the only notice- 
able point is the very straight profile. It is a beak 
which at first sight seems only suitable for ordinary 
pecking, and is often used for this, but the bird 
derives its name from the unusual habit of turning 
over stones and other objects in search of the 
creatures which shelter beneath them. Mr. Barnby 
Smith has recorded in the Avicultural Magazine 
his experiences with two captive birds of this species ; 
these he found could turn over a weight of as 
much as half a pound, a big feat of strength for a 
bird not larger than a Song-Thrush, and Edwards, 
the well-known cobbler-naturalist of Banffshire, 
saw three combine to try to upset a dead cod-fish 
which was too heavy for one to manage alone. 

An opposite case to that of this widely-ranging 
and versatile bird is found in the extraordinary 
little Wry-billed Plover of New Zealand {Ana- 
rhynchus frontalis)^ which is unique among birds in 
having its bill bent to the right side, an adaptation, 
it is said, to a habit of searching for food around 
stones, and always running in one direction ; it 
is well figured, and its peculiarities described in 
the second edition of Buller's " Birds of New 
Zealand." 

Then, among the very small Sandpipers known 
as Stints, we get the unique Spoon-billed Stint 
{Eurynorhynchus pygmceus) of Eastern Asia, a rare 



44 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

bird with a bill expanded at the tip like a miniature 
Spoonbill's, and presumably used in much the same 
way, i,e. for sifting as a Duck does. 

The true Spoonbills, by the way, are nearly 
related to the Ibises, and in India our British species, 
which is well known there, is called Spoon-Ibis 
{Chamach Buza) — a creditable tribute to the un- 
taught native's discrimination in classification ; 
our European ornithologists have generally put the 
Spoonbills in a family by themselves, though they 
are so near the curve-billed Ibises that a Spoonbill- 
Ibis hybrid was bred some years ago at the Berlin 
Zoo. The Curlews, which are so often confused 
with the Ibises, are simply large Sandpipers with 
the beak modified into the same bow-shaped form 
as that of an Ibis. The Curlews, however, simply 
probe for food, without the lateral sweeping action 
so noticeable in Ibises. 

Curved or bowed bills are common among 
passerine birds, and are often employed in different 
ways ; the use of such a bill as a probe is familiar 
in our tiny Tree-creeper {Certhia familiaris), which 
investigates the bark of trees by its aid ; but there 
are also other Creepers with straight bills, and the 
group grades into the strong-billed Nuthatches, 
whose beaks are powerful hammers ; a Nuthatch 
hews Hke a Woodpecker, and splits his nut with a 
powerful swing of the whole body from the hock, 
having first fixed the nut in a crevice to give a 
purchase and keep it steady. 

Some of the social Thrush-like Babblers in the 



PICK-AXES AND PROBES 45 

East also have the bow-bill, and no doubt this is 
often used as a probe ; but on keeping some speci- 
mens of the Rusty-cheeked Babbler {Pomatorhinus 
erythrogenys) in India in a small aviary with a 
deep bed of sand on the floor which had become 
hardened, I was astonished to find them vigorously 
using their long curved beaks as pick-axes, digging 
up the ground as if a corps of pigmy navvies had 
worked at it. The beak is evidently adapted for 
much wear and tear, as I found on buying these 
birds that in some it was much overgrown from 
want of use, and had to be cut back. 

But the most remarkable beak found among 
insectivorous birds is that of the Huia of New 
Zealand (Reteralocha acutirostris) ; not so much 
from the peculiarity of the bill itself, as because 
of its different shape and use in the two sexes, a 
phenomenon unknown elsewhere among vertebrate 
animals, since, however different the sexes may be 
in general appearance, their means of obtaining food 
are practically identical. But in the Huia, although 
the plumage and size are identical in both sexes, the 
beaks are as different as those of a Woodpecker and 
a Tree-creeper, the male having a strong, straight 
digging bill of moderate length, and the hen a 
long, curved, slender, probing one, twice as long 
as her husband's pick-axe. 

The late Sir Walter BuUer, in his admirable 
book on the birds of New Zealand, tells us how he 
was able to study the actual use of their very diverse 
bills by these birds. He had a pair brought to 



46 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

him by a Maori, and turned them loose into a 
small room. Here he provided them with decayed 
logs infested with the boring grubs of a beetle 
{Prionoflus reticularis) , which forms an important 
part of the Huia's natural food. The birds were 
tame, and he could easily watch them at work — the 
male chiselHng and hacking at the rotten wood, and 
the hen probing the beetle-burrows where this was 
too hard for him to cut it away. When, after 
pecking away at the wood, the male Huia still 
failed to reach his prey, the hen would come and 
pull it out with her longer forceps, but, although she 
had availed herself of his preliminary work, she 
always ate herself everything she thus got ; be- 
haviour apparently selfish, but, as we shall see later, 
quite normal among hen birds. 

The two nevertheless were much attached to 
each other, and this seems the character of the 
species ; there is even in Buller's book a figure of 
a hen Huia whose upper bill, by some accident or 
natural deformity, had grown into the shape of a 
corkscrew, so that it can hardly have got enough 
food to support life naturally (although the Huia 
eats berries as well as insects) and had evidently 
been fed for a long time by a devoted mate. 

In this case the hen evidently has the more speci- 
alized and recent type of bill, and those of the 
young of both sexes resemble the male's ; and 
curiously enough. New Zealand presents us with 
yet another case of female speciaHzation in the case 
of the local species of Sheldrake {C as arc a variegata) 






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AN ADVANCED DUCK 47 

called *' Paradise Duck " in that country ; in this 
the plumage is affected, the drake being a dark 
grey with a greenish-black head, while the duck is 
mostly chestnut-red with a snow-white one, and is 
thus far more striking and conspicuous, though not 
quite so large as her mate. As in the other case, 
her daughters confirm the pedigree by resembling 
their more sombre-tinted father in their first 
plumage, attaining their feminine plumage later on. 

Readers will be reminded of the similar case in 
human hair, which is short in babies of both sexes, 
but afterwards tends to grow longer in women 
than in men, though the general habit of cutting 
the men's hair makes the difference seem artificial. 

The Huia, which in size and shape is not unlike 
a Jay, was always a bird of limited range, and never 
found in the South Island ; it is now very local, 
and it is to be hoped that the State restrictions on 
the capture of the peculiar birds of New Zealand 
will be successful in preserving it — without some- 
thing of the sort it would soon have been exter- 
minated " in the cause of science." 

Next to the Huia, the bird which shows most 
sexual difference in the bill is the Capercailzie, so 
well known to Scottish sportsmen and a common 
object in our poulterers' shops in the winter ; and 
here there is a possible explanation in a different 
manner of feeding in the two sexes. The cock 
has a much larger and more hooked bill than the 
hen, even in proportion to his far greater size ; 
in fact his bill looks more like that of a bird of 



i 



48 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

prey than a game-bird. Now, the cock tastes far 
more of turpentine than the hen, and he is known 
to feed more on pine and fir-shoots, his mate, 
with her smaU ordinary game-bird's beak, seeking 
her food more upon the ground. 

This brings us to the consideration of vegetable - 
feeding birds ; but in the case of these there is 
seldom much modification of the bill, nearly all the 
sensational beaks, if we may thus express it, belong- 
ing to animal-feeding birds. There is, however, a 
very peculiar specialized beak in a bird which, like 
the Capercailzie, is especially a haunter of coniferous 
woods, and derives its food from them — the Cross- 
bill, in other respects a very ordinary member of 
the group of Finches. In this bird, often a vdnter 
visitor here, and one which has of late years bred 
quite frequently in Britain, the beak is crossed at 
the tip, both jaws being curved ; the jaws may 
cross either to the light or the left, and this crossing 
is quite accidental or indifferent, having nothing 
to do with sex. 

The young Crossbill has, up to the time of 
leaving the nest, the ordinary Finch-beak shutting 
evenly ; presumably the direction of the crossing 
depends on the nesthng being right- or left-beaked, 
i,e, using its beak instinctively more on one side 
than another. The particular use of the bill is to 
prise open the scales of pine- and fir-cones, the 
underlying seeds of which form the Crossbill's 
favourite food, and are scooped out by the tongue, 
which is unusually long for a bird of this group. 



TOUCANS IN EVOLUTION 49 

The most striking beaks found among vegetable- 
feeding birds are of course those of the Toucans 
and Hornbills, groups which are constantly confused 
by people unacquainted with birds, and very 
naturally, since both are so conspicuously over- 
beaked, so to speak, that the differences between 
them are quite over-shadowed by their resemblance 
in the prominent feature, and their general habits 
are also much alike, both groups being tree-haunters 
and fruit- eaters, though they take animal food as 
well. The Hornbills, however, have three toes in 
front and one behind, the front ones being more 
or less connected in a common skin, as in Kingfishers, 
to which they seem to have some affinity ; the 
Toucans have their toes in pairs, like Woodpeckers, 
with which they are closely connected by the 
intermediate family of Barbets (Capitonida), In 
fact a very interesting evolutionary exhibit might 
be made up by any museum possessing plenty of 
specimens of all three families, so as to show the 
gradation from the Woodpeckers into the Wrynecks, 
the Barbets with their Crow-like or in some cases 
almost Wryneck-like bills, and the very unbroken 
series of Toucans, ranging from forms like the 
Toucanets (Selenidera), which, in bill and body, 
hardly exceed the biggest Barbets, of the genus 
Megalcema^ to the great black, enormous-billed birds 
of the genus Rhamphastos, the most typical Toucans 
of all. 

In the Hornbills there is no gradation into an- 
other family altogether, but there is much difference 

4 



so BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

between the small Magpie-sized Hornbills of the 
genus Tockus, with little or no " top-story " to the 
bill, to the large typical Hornbills, often as big as 
hen Turkeys, with enormous bills generally crowned 
with a great horny excrescence. The smaller kinds 
are more insectivorous than the larger, and thus 
show some approach to the Wood-Hoopoes {Irrisor)^ 
which have much more curved bills than the ordinary 
Hoopoes, and feed when on trees, while the common 
Hoopoes are ground-feeders. 

It has been well suggested that the great bills of 
the larger Hornbills and Toucans are adapted to 
giving a purchase for wrenching off tough-stalked 
fruit ; as the birds grew bigger, too, they would 
not be able to venture on such slender branches, 
and so would need more to reach out for their food. 
And if the beak had got merely longer without 
acquiring bulk, any wrenching effort would have 
been liable to dislocate it. That Hornbills at any 
rate work their beaks very hard may be inferred 
from the facts that in the largest and bulkiest-beaked 
kinds the edges of the jaws are worn and chipped 
in elderly specimens, and that if the fruit will 
not come away by fair means, some Hornbills think 
nothing of throwing themselves bodily off the 
bough and wrenching it away by sheer weight. No 
doubt the effort of recovering their perch in 
gymnastic exercises like this is what gives these 
particularly awkward-looking birds the deftness on 
the wing which many people must have observed 
when watching them catch in the air grapes or other 




RHINOCEROS IIORNBILLS. 
Two forms are shown here, the true Buccios rliinoccros. ami the straight-horned Bnccros 

sylvcstris. 



50 




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HANDICAPPING HELMETS 51 

food thrown to them in the aviaries in zoological 
gardens. 

Even the biggest and most specialized Hornbills 
and Toucans like animal food, though the '' horn " 
of the former must often baulk them in obtaining 
prey from crevices and holes ; for I once had a 
narrow escape from a nasty dig in the face from a 
Concave-casqued Hornbill {Dichoceros bicornis) con- 
fined in a hutch in the Calcutta Bird Market ; 
about half the bill passed between the wooden bars, 
but the broad helmet acted as an efficient '' stop " 
and spoilt the stroke. Buff on was often fanciful 
in his remarks on animal structure, but I fancy he 
was right when he referred to the ** horns " of the 
Hornbills as an actual hindrance in food-getting. 
It would be interesting to know whether the great 
helmet only developed after the birds had become 
more definitely fruit- eaters, or whether the in- 
convenience of possessing it tended to develop their 
diet in that direction. 

There is probably, however, some connection 
between the adoption of a vegetable diet and large 
size, for nearly all the biggest birds are either 
vegetable- or carrion-feeders, i.e. eat food which 
does not require mobility to obtain it, and can be 
obtained in bulk if at all, so that, if the digestion 
permits its -assimilation, size is favoured and tends 
to increase. 

Reverting to the Woodpecker-Barbet-Toucan 
alliance, it is interesting to note that the Wood- 
peckers in spite of their specialization for grub- 



52 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

hunting under tree-bark, are in many cases fruit- 
eaters ; our own Greater Spotted Woodpecker, for 
instance, eats several kinds of fruit, and in North 
America the Red-headed Woodpecker {Melanerfes 
erythrocefhalus) used at any rate to have a very bad 
name as a fruit-eater, even going so far as to go off 
with an apple spiked on its bill when leaving the 
orchard, so says Wilson ; and one has even special- 
ized in a most peculiar vegetable food, the cambium 
or inner bark of trees and their sap. This is the 
Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) of North America, 
which is often quite a pest by its trick of girdling 
fruit-trees with its rows of punctures made to ex- 
tract the sap. The worst of it is that its name and 
bad reputation have got transferred to other small 
Woodpeckers ; just as among us the comparatively 
harmless Kestrel often has to suffer for the misdeeds 
of the Sparrow-hawk, which really is an inveterate 
bird-killer, not confining its ravages by any means 
to Sparrows, but tackling anything from a Blue- tit 
to a Woodpigeon, so that in its game-list the 
chicks of Pheasants and Fowls are quite naturally 
included. 

I have spoken of the specialization of the Wood- 
pecker's bill for grub-hunting, but this is not very 
striking at first sight, and the degree to which, the 
tip of the bill is formed like a chisel is somewhat 
variable ; it is the hardness of texture that is the 
important point, and the skill of the bird in using 
its tool. The Great Black Woodpecker has been 
seen in captivity to chip two parallel grooves down 



CROWS AS WOODCUTTERS 53 

an upright post and then prise out the intervening 
piece, thus going to work in quite a systematic way. 
It is of interest to find that in the unspecialized 
Barbets the power of wood-cutting occurs, though 
apparently only used for hewing out the nest- 
hole ; but the state of the back of the cage in 
which a Great Barbet was confined at the Zoo was 
ample evidence that this bird's powers in this 
respect are considerable, though the beak is merely 
Crow-like. 

The Crows themselves, however, with their 
usual versatility, can do a good deal in the way of 
wood-cutting vdth their stout bills ; Mr. J. Fros- 
tick, of Balham, once showed me a Carrion-crow 
he kept as a pet, and its cage afforded ample evidence 
of the wood-cutting proclivities of its inmate ; and 
readers of " Barnaby Rudge " will be familiar with 
the feat of one of Dickens's real Ravens whose bio- 
graphies are described in the introduction, though 
the amount of damage done to the " six stairs and 
a landing," which he " tore up and swallowed in 
splinters " is of course humorously exaggerated. 

The greatest power of wood-cutting is, however, 
as every one knows, to be seen in Parrots ; it is 
perhaps for this that their very peculiar bills became 
so specialized in hardness, shortness, and power, 
for they mostly build in holes in trees, and are 
not averse to making holes, either in trees or cliffs, 
for themselves. Besides, many of them are grub- 
eaters, and cut away wood in order to obtain their 
prey, quite taking the place of Woodpeckers in the 



54 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

Australian region, where these otherwise universally 
distributed birds are absent. 

The chief grub-eaters are the Black Cockatoos 
(Calyptorhynchus) of Australia and the curious New 
Zealand Parrots known as Kakas (Nestor) ; but the 
habit is probably commoner than is supposed, since 
most Parrots in captivity evince a liking for animal 
food, although too much of this is bad for them, 
often causing a skin-irritation and the adoption of 
the feather-plucking habit. This, however, has 
probably more to do with the want of exercise. 

It seems improbable that the Parrots should have 
developed their extraordinary deep-curved bill, 
unique among vertebrates in its hinged upper jaw 
and extreme biting power, merely to feed on seeds 
and fruit, and it is noteworthy that the Parrot 
which has the least typical beak, Pesquet's Parrot 
of New Guinea (Dasyptilus pesqueti), in which the 
upper jaw at any rate is more like an Eagle's than 
a Parrot's, tears at its food of fruit like a carnivorous 
bird at flesh, and also has less Parrot-like movements 
than the rest of its tribe, hopping from bough to 
bough with a flicking action of the wings — evidently 
it has not fully attained the Parrot specialization in 
form or action, and corresponds among the Parrots 
to the Magpie-Goose among the Ducks. 

The White Cockatoos, which are generally 
ground-feeders, use their bills much in digging up 
bulbs and the egg-cases of locusts ; in the Long- 
nosed Cockatoos {Licmetis)^ which are especially 
addicted to a diet of roots, the upper bill is par- 



'z^^;rf^i/f^ '^^../jij^f^/g- 




LYRE-BIRDS (MALE AND FExMALE). 

The Lyre-bird is the largest of singing-birds, and is one of the few birds which shows 

decorative phiiuage without brilliant colonrs. 

[Copyright, Hulchinson & Co. 




IMPERIAL WOODPECKERS. 
This American bird is the largest of the Woodpeckers, and shows the rare peculiarity of 
the female's crest being longer than the male's. 



SCRATCHERS AND SEIZERS 55 

ticularly prolonged and forms a most effective hoe. 
Another hoeing genus, in a very different family, is 
that of the Monauls (Lophophorus) among the game- 
birds, best-known in the person of the splendid 
" Impeyan Pheasant " ; this bird will continue 
hoeing by the hour, in search of roots and grubs, 
and scratches very little, although belonging to a 
group which are particularly characterized by 
using the feet in this way in search of food. 

In fact, the Game-birds used to be known by the 
general title of Rasores or scratchers, and every one 
knows what execution they can do in this way. 
Their scratching instinct and capacity, in fact, is 
no doubt one of their strongest assets in the struggle 
for existence ; the habit is not a common one among 
birds when applied to food-getting, though it crops 
up again amongst the Passerines ; the Whydah- 
birds among the Finches, for instance, are scratchers, 
and so is our Bearded Reedling. The Lyre-bird 
(Menura superba), too, is a most powerful scratcher ; 
indeed, it actually grips clods and throws them 
back, shifting masses of as much as seven pounds in 
weight, although not bigger than a Fowl. 

The feet, however, are only employed in actually 
seizing food in the birds of prey — Hawks, Eagles, 
and Owls — and in these are specialized for the 
purpose, being armed, as every one knows, with 
particularly long and sharp claws, and having a 
most powerful grip, at least in the typical forms. 
There are some interesting minor specializations 
among these birds ; thus, the especially bird- 



S6 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

killing kinds, such as Sparrow-hawks and Falcons, 
have very long toes and talons, to give the greatest 
chance of a grip on an elusive prey seized on the 
wing. The Falcons usually strike from above, and 
often kill the prey, when brought down by the 
talons, with the beak ; the Sparrow-hawks chase 
and clutch, and kill more slowly by their relentless 
grip. 

Reptile- eating Hawks and Eagles have, on the 
other hand, particularly short toes, adapted to the 
usually narrow bodies of their prey, and fish-eaters, 
of which the Osprey is of course the most typical, 
have the underside of the toes roughened vdth 
little spikes, to give them a secure grip of their 
slippery quarry. It will be noticed that the Sea- 
Eagles and the great Fishing-Owls of the East 
(Scotopelia in Africa, and Ketupa in Asia) have 
ordinary bare legs, adapted to immersion, whereas 
ordinary Owls and most of the hunting Eagles are 
feather-legged. The adaptation here is, however, 
probably special only in the case of the Owls, for 
Hawks, which are seldom fishers, are generally 
bare-legged, as is also the great Harpy-Eagle 
(Thrasaetus harpyia), which has far the most power- 
ful feet of all the birds of prey, the toes being as 
thick as a man's thumb, and the claws as big as a 
bear's. 

The strength of these birds is something enor- 
mous, and in proportion to their size is greater than 
that of the quadruped carnivora ; the Goshawk, a 
giant Sparrow-hawk, can if a strong female (this sex 



THE PROWESS OF EAGLES 57 

being the larger in birds of prey generally, and especi- 
ally in this typical Hawk group) actually hold and 
kill a hare, a creature several times its own weight ; 
and the Indian River-Eagle (Haliaetus leucoryphus), 
a lighter and less powerful bird than the Golden 
Eagle, can not only carry off a Greylag Goose, but 
has been known to strike, lift, and land a fish of a 
stone in weight, though this quarry taxed its powers 
to the uttermost, and it could not raise it again 
when frightened by a shot. In cases like this the 
impetus of the swoop no doubt counts for a great 
deal. 

As for the Golden Eagle, it can even master the 
wolf, a beast not only far heavier than itself, but 
terribly armed to boot with most punishing teeth ; 
it is habitually flown at this quarry by Mongolian 
magnates, but many birds meet their fate in learn- 
ing their trade, for after the first grip with one 
foot is made good, the bird must be quick and 
dexterous in grappling the beast's face with the 
other foot to avoid fatal reprisals. The cases in 
which birds of prey have been found killed by 
animals of the weasel kind which they had seized 
are evidently examples of nature's penalty on the 
bungler, and no doubt exemplify a powerful check 
on these birds, which otherwise would have few 
casualties to face except in encounters with each 
other. 

The great Owls are not inferior in relative power 
and ferocity to the Eagles ; a Snowy Owl kept in 
captivity in Shetland, according to the account of 



S8 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

Saxby, in his book on the birds of that country, 
once seized upon a cat, and held it in such a powerful 
grip that had not puss been rescued in time it 
would have succeeded in its amiable intention of 
biting her head off. 

In contrast to these powerful and ferocious 
species, we find many birds of prey which feed 
largely on insects, such as the Hobby and Kestrel 
among the Falcons, and the little Scops Owls 
among the nocturnal birds of prey ; in both cases 
the insectivorous forms being closely allied to highly 
carnivorous ones, for the Hobby is very like a 
miniature of the arch-bird-killer, the Peregrine, 
and the Scops Owls are only distinguished by size 
from the particularly powerful and savage Eagle- 
Owls of the genus Bubo, 

Among birds of prey a very near approach to 
cannibalism occurs in the Barred Owl of North 
America (Syrnium nebulosum), which has an un- 
enviable reputation for devouring its smaller rela- 
tives ; and the Peregrine Falcon frequently preys 
on the Kestrel. However, this habit is more widely 
spread than might perhaps be supposed ; the great 
carrion- eating Petrel known by sailors as the " Nelly " 
(Ossifraga gigantea) remorselessly devours the 
smaller Petrels, and the Skua Gull or Bonxie feeds 
on the Kittiwake Gull. Moreover, the Shrikes, 
some of which are every bit as carnivorous as the 
Hawks, are only passerine birds, so when they 
prey on Finches and Thrushes they also are eating 
near relatives ; the Shrike in fact is but a song- 



CROWS AS EXPERIMENTERS 59 

bird modified into a bird of prey, and even yet 
" mislodging music in a pitiless breast." Unlike 
the typical true birds of prey, however, it seizes 
with the bill, not the feet, which differ little from 
those of ordinary passerine birds. 

The foot-grasping habit is so rooted in most of 
the birds of prey proper that even the insectivorous 
ones catch their small prey with the feet ; it is a 
common and absurd sight in India when the white- 
ants or termites are swarming, to see such big 
birds as Kites {Milvus govinda) catching these tiny 
things in their raptorial talons, with which they can 
grip and carry oif a rat. 

There are, however, cases in which the adapta- 
tion here is not complete ; the Caracara Hawk of 
America (Polyborus tharus), though seizing birds on 
the wing with the feet — a feat it seldom performs, 
by the way — picks up ground- prey with its beak, 
afterwards transferring it to the feet when in 
flight, as Mr. Hudson informs us. I have seen the 
Indian Crow (Corvus splendens) thus transfer an 
object from bill to feet, as if he wanted to learn 
the Kite's trick of foot-carrying ; but the object 
was not food — the Crow is too practical to experi- 
ment with anything so valuable, and a bit of stick 
or dry cow-dung was the subject of the experiment. 

Some very curious specializations in the feeding 
habits of birds of prey deserve mention here ; those 
of the Snail - Hawk (Rostrhamus sociabilis) and 
Bird's - nesting Eagle {Neofus malayensis). The 
Snail-Hawk is a Buzzard-like, brown bird with a 



6o BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

very long hook to the beak and long talons ; it 
feeds chiefly on water-snails of the genus Amfullaria^ 
very common in shallow pond-edges in the tropics, 
but, one would think, very queer food for a Hawk. 
The long hook of the bill and long talons may be 
adapted for winkle-pin and shell-grippers respec- 
tively, but from what will be said directly it is 
possible that the adaptation may be only apparent. 

The ways of the Bird's-nesting Eagle are still 
more strange. This species, from South-eastern 
Asia, has black plumage and a most peculiar foot, 
with the claws very long except on the outer front 
toe, which is quite dwarfed. Its habit is to sail 
over the tree-tops looking for the nests of small 
birds, which when found it carries off in its long 
claws, meanwhile ransacking them for the eggs and 
young, on which it makes its meal in mid- air. 

Eating on the wing, by the way, is quite a 
common accomplishment with birds of prey which 
capture light quarry ; it was quite the usual thing 
in Calcutta to see a Kite sailing overhead and 
tearing at something held in its talons. Once one 
dropped a bullock's eye almost on me, having no 
doubt found the tough morsel non-negotiable. 

Better known than the Snail- Hawk and the 
Bird's-nester is the Secretary-bird of Africa, which 
is, indeed, one of the best known of all birds of 
prey. Most people are familiar with its quaint 
appearance, as of an Eagle on stilts (I can never see 
why it should ever have been called the Secretary 
Vulture) ; the short toes should, however, be 



THE SECRETARY AND SNAKES 61 

noted, and the method of attacking prey, which 
the keepers at the Zoo will always display with the 
aid of a dead rat tied to a string. It will be noted 
that the bird strikes on the prey to kill it, and 
does not grasp, using one foot at a time, and so 
quickly that it gets in two or three blows where 
a man could only give one ; in fact, I am told that 
the bird will even kill blue- bottles in this way. 
The wings are kept lifted meanwhile, no doubt in 
readiness to spring back if the victim retaliates. 
But in its conflicts with snakes, which have gained it 
so much notoriety and the protection of our Govern- 
ment in Africa, it is said to bring the wings into 
action to beat the reptile down. Its prey, how- 
ever, is not restricted to snakes, but includes any 
sort of ground animal it can find and kill ; in fact, 
Major J. Stevenson-Hamilton, the Game Warden of 
the Transvaal, says in his fascinating book ''Animal 
Life in Africa," that it is neither more nor less of a 
snake-eater than other large birds of prey, so that 
we cannot regard its peculiar specialization as 
being an adaptation to a reptilian diet. 

In fact, we may easily make mistakes in trying to 
correlate structure and function, as may be realized 
in considering the case of the Kea Parrot {Nestor 
notabilis) of New Zealand. Notable, indeed, this 
bird is, not to say notorious, but not in the way 
its describer meant when he gave it its scientific 
name. Every one knows now that it has undergone 
one of the most remarkable changes of habit ever 
recorded of any animal. Formerly a feeder on 



62 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

roots, berries, grubs, etc., it soon after the intro- 
duction of sheep into its haunts in the New Zealand 
Alps became a most cruel and destructive carnivore, 
with a ghoulish appetite for live mutton, attacking 
the sheep at the loins and eating deeply into their 
flesh. It was at first credited with the desire of 
devouring the kidneys or the fat surrounding 
them, but this view appears to be a mistake, the 
locality of attack being merely the part where the 
unhappy sheep had no chance of dislodging its 
tormentor. Of course so extraordinary a habit as 
this fell under the ban of museum scepticism, but 
it has been proved up to the hilt. Rewards are 
paid for the killing of these birds, and, unlike all 
other New Zealand birds except the Weka Rail 
(which is destructive to eggs and chickens), it may 
be sent out of the country. It is a curious thing, 
however, that specimens sent to the London Zoo 
soon give up the habit of eating meat and feed on 
the ordinary seed and other vegetable food given 
to Parrots ; one lived there some years chiefly on 
carrots, thus reverting to its natural diet of roots. 

This would seem to indicate that hunger was 
the first incentive to the change of diet ; the in- 
satiable inquisitiveness and destructiveness which are 
very characteristic of these Parrots would be quite 
sufficient incentive for them to attack dead sheep 
and offal, which they did before transferring their 
attentions, in a natural sequence, to the living 
animals. They have been known to attack a horse, 
and the corpse of a man killed by a fall in the 



EAGLE ATTACKING MAN 63 

mountains has also been mutilated by them, so 
that under certain circumstances of helplessness 
by accident or illness, they might easily become 
dangerous, just as rats are in similar circumstances. 

It is rare, however, for any birds to attack man 
for food ; still, this would seem to be the motive 
for the attacks made on men in the water by Alba- 
trosses, as in the case where these sea-birds attacked 
the German sailors in the sea at our defeat of 
German ships in the sea-fight off the Falklands ; 
and no one with any wide knowledge of birds could 
doubt that Eagles probably were in former times, 
when they were more common and fire-arms less 
so, very serious enemies to children. 

It must be remembered that only a very few 
years ago a case was recorded in the Field in which 
a Golden Eagle attacked an adult in Scotland, 
though in this case the motive was apparently 
revenge, as the man, a gamekeeper, had rescued a 
Grouse from it earlier on the same day. Hassel- 
quist, also, in his " Travels in the Levant," published 
in the eighteenth century, credits an Owl, which he 
calls Strix orientalis, but which is apparently only 
the Common Barn-Owl from his description and 
attribution to it of building-haunting habits, with 
coming into houses in Syria at night, and destroying 
babies if not carefully watched. 

I may say that on taking a little boy of two years 
old with his parents to see the Owls at the Zoo 
some years ago I noticed that all the large Eagle- 
Owls abandoned their usual apathetic unseeing 



64 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

stare, and glared down earnestly at the child ; and 
though I could not understand this at the time, on 
finding Hasselquist's note it struck me that a 
child-killing Owl might not be at all an impos- 
sibility. 

To return to the Kea ; Smith Woodward has 
suggested, in Mivart's book on birds, that these 
Parrots used in the days of the existence of the 
great Emu-like Moas in New Zealand to attack 
and vivisect these now extinct birds in the same 
manner as their descendants now do the introduced 
sheep ; and the possibility of this must of course 
be borne in mind. The large struthious birds at 
the present day seem peculiarly helpless against 
the attacks of smaller birds; in the Calcutta Zoo 
Crows have lined a nest of feathers pecked from the 
back of an Emu, and have pecked sores on the backs 
of Ostriches. This did not happen in my time, 
but I have seen a Crow sit on the back of an Ostrich 
and peck it. 

If the Kea were thus always more or less carni- 
vorous, its peculiarities would be easily understood ; 
it is, as a matter of fact, in gait and movements 
much more like a Raven than a Parrot, running 
freely, and hopping frequently, while it is said 
often to sail on outspread wings when in flight. 
Its beak also, very long for a Parrot's and with a 
comparatively gentle curve of the upper jaw, and 
its comparatively long legs, v^th its very duU 
olive-green plumage, suggest a carnivorous bird 
rather than a Parrot ; but after all, these peculiarities 



CHANGES IN FEEDING 65 

may simply be due to its being, like the eagle- 
billed Pesquet's Parrot, an unspecialized early form. 
Its reversion to a vegetable diet in captivity may 
point the same v^^ay ; in any case it is instructive 
to notice, that, unspecialized as it is, its beak has 
at any rate a good share of typical Parrot power, 
judging by its exploits in the way of gnawing wood. 
I have also seen, when a couple were kept in a 
cage in the indoor parrot-house at the Zoo, one 
cracking canary-seed, while the other amused itself 
by levering up the perch in the next cage hard 
alongside, for the discomfiture of the inmates. 

The Kea's is not only the most notorious, but 
really the most remarkable change of diet known ; 
but minor changes are often recorded, and though 
these are often brought about by man's interference 
in producing a new food-supply or in transporting 
birds from one country to another, they must not 
be despised as unworthy of study on that account, 
since in undisturbed Nature the equilibrium we 
hear so much about is not constant. Birds colonize 
areas on their own initiative occasionally, and 
plants even invade new habitats as circumstances 
become more favourable for them, so that there 
are always opportunities for changes of diet. 

Mr. Hudson has recorded how, since the giant 
grasses of the Argentine pampas have given place 
to the turf-making grasses and clovers of Europe, 
the Chaja or Crested Screamer {Chauna chavaria), 
which used to feed on water-plants, has taken to 
grazing on land ; it is a curious thing that the 
5 



66 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

fowl-like beak of this bird looks much more suitable 
for such a diet than for aquatic herbage, for which 
the broad bills of Swans and Ducks are better 
fitted; and in fact the most purely terrestrial 
Geese show a great reduction in the size of the beak 
compared with the rest of the family. So that, as 
in the case of the Kea, the new habit seems quite 
in conformity with the structure. 

It has been noted in New Zealand, also, that the 
native Pigeon {CarfO'phaga novce-zealandice)^ natur- 
ally purely a tree-bird and a feeder on berries and 
buds, has been found feeding on the ground in 
rape-fields ; and a similar change has very probably 
taken place in the habits of our Wood-Pigeon, 
which in the primitive state of Europe was probably 
much more exclusively a feeder on tree-produce 
than it is to-day, when the grain and root-crops, 
and the clover of the meadows, tempt it to feed 
a great deal on the ground ; here it can be seen 
to be not quite in its element, for it is far less quick 
in walking than the common Pigeon, a true ground- 
feeder, and seems not to be able to run, always 
taking wing when pressed. 

The Wood-Pigeon, as can be easily observed in 
our London parks, is a good example of the extra- 
ordinary gluttony of some birds ; there is some 
excuse for its greedy feeding when its food consists 
of herbs, buds, etc., but it keeps up the custom 
on receiving the public dole of bread and monkey- 
nuts, which latter it swallows with the husk enclosing 
them. One evening I began to toss a few of these 



GLUTTONS AND DRUNKARDS 67 

nuts to a Pigeon I encountered just to see how 
many it would take ; but after eating a couple, it 
only took the next two or three in its bill and 
pettishly threw them aside, after which it flew off. 
Evidently it was already full-fed, but could not 
resist the temptation to swallow a little more, and 
its discomfiture reminded me of the story of the 
glutton Quin, who, after eating all he could of the 
homely joint of boiled aitchbone of beef, actually 
burst into tears, after toying with a slice from a 
roast haunch of venison, which his host, knowing 
his weakness, had kept in reserve till he should be 
hors de combat, 

I have also heard of a case in which some Turkeys 
kept on one of the Channel Islands obtained access 
to a garden in which there were mulberry trees, 
and gorged themselves till they died from the 
effects of their meal. Birds will even get drunk, or 
something very like it ; the Jungle-Fowl of Southern 
India (Gallus sonnerati) and of Ceylon (G. lafayettt) 
feed freely on the fruit of plants of the genus 
Strobilanthes, which so stupefies them that they can 
be knocked over with a stick ; and in South Africa 
Bulbuls (Pycnonotus tricolor) feed on the fermented 
berries of the Cape gooseberry, which so intoxicate 
them that they cannot fly straight or far. 

Many years ago, when a boy at Maidstone, I 
had an opportunity of seeing that a bird may 
appear to enjoy the feeling of intoxication. Having 
read that small birds could be caught by oftering 
them turnip-seed soaked in whiskey, I tried the 



68 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

experiment, it being winter-time with snow on 
the ground. Onl^ one bird responded to the 
alcoholic invitation, a cock Chaffinch, which after 
partaking was visibly overcome, but able to escape 
capture ; and I retired myself with a feeling of 
some compunction, fearing he might fall a victim- 
to some cat in his irresponsible condition. But I 
might have spared my pity ; for next morning, a 
cock Chaffinch, with ruffled plumage and in an 
aggressive mood, was finishing the medicated seed 
and keeping off the Sparrows, who were now quite 
ready to experiment themselves. 

After this, I can believe a story which was told 
me in India by a bird-dealer, to the effect that if 
you gave a bird an opium pill and then released it, 
if would come again next day for a repetition of 
the dose. 

Of course the Vulture and the Cormorant are re- 
garded as the stock examples of gastronomical excess 
in birds ; but I doubt if this is just. They cer- 
tainly can perform phenomenal gorging feats, but it 
must be remembered that the Cormorant must at 
any rate search and work hard for its food, and 
that the Vulture's meals are very intermittent. 
From what I saw in India, where Vultures were 
practically always on view aloft at some time of 
the day and somewhere, while one could seldom 
see them feeding, I came to the conclusion that 
they probably only got a meal about once a week, 
so that if they indulged heavily at such times they 
could not fairly be accused of gluttony. It will be 



UNAPPETISING RATIONS 69 

noticed that in confinement, where Vultures are 
fed regularly, they do not by any means eat im- 
moderately ; a piece of meat the size of a good big 
steak will suffice for the daily meal of a bird as big 
as a Turkey. 

Mr. Beebe, the Bird Curator of the New York 
Zoo, found that Vultures in captivity preferred 
fresh to tainted meat, and an attempt made some 
years ago to feed the Vultures on entrails instead 
of flesh at our London establishment did not meet 
with success, so that it is pretty obvious that these 
birds in a state of nature are often forced by hunger 
to consume substances which they do not really 
appreciate. The extreme case of this is that of 
the small White Scavenger Vultures (Neofhron) 
which habitually feed on excrement, not being 
strong enough to contend with the larger Vultures 
for carrion ; Tristram in Palestine saw them 
looking on wistfully while Griffon Vultures tore at 
a carcase, to which they eagerly rushed as soon 
as the big birds retired at his approach, only to be 
driven off when their tyrants deemed it safe to come 
back again. 

It is well known, too, that hawthorn-berries form 
an important part of the food of our familiar 
birds of the Thrush tribe, and of Wood-Pigeons ; 
yet during several London winters, which have 
been mild, I have noticed that haws hung on the 
trees till spring, untouched by the numerous 
Blackbirds, Thrushes, and Wood-Pigeons that fre- 
quent Regent's Park, showing that these berries are 



JO BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

really emergency rations, which are seldom touched 
so long as more palatable food is obtainable. Holly- 
berries are known to be even less favoured, while 
on the other hand the berries of the mountain-ash 
are soon eaten up, and Mr. Hudson has described 
Missel-Thrushes coming to yew-trees on the downs 
again and again, disgorging these berries half- 
digested in order to return to the feast, a piece of 
depravity only to be compared to the practices of 
the gluttons of ancient Rome, who were wont to 
go out to be sick in the middle of dinner. 

Most observant people have seen, too, how the 
Starlings strip the elders of their berries as soon as 
these are ripe, and in India I found their relatives, 
the various Mynahs, equally attentive to the berries 
of the peepul fig {Ficus rdigiosa), which were also 
attractive to the Barbets ; the Bulbuls especially 
revelled in the berries of the introduced Lantana 
shrub, though in winter I have seen them eating 
buds, though with no goodwill, the buds being 
evidently only taken in default of better food. 

The tree most attractive to birds I have ever 
seen, however, is the whit eb earn (Pyrus aria)^ at 
any rate in the case of a specimen which used to 
stand close to the South Gate of the Zoological 
Gardens before the new Eagle Aviary was built. 
When this was hung with its large orange haw-like 
berries, it was constantly frequented by Starlings 
(which certainly do not eat ordinary hav/s if they 
can help it). Blackbirds, and Wood-Pigeons, all 
intent on feeding on the fruit as long as it lasted ; 



WORMS NOT APPRECIATED 71 

I once even saw a Moorhen in the top of the tree, 
and although I did not actually see it feeding, unless 
it was there after the fruit I do not know what 
its business was, there being a much more natural 
haunt for it in the rushes and shrubbery of the 
Three-island Pond a few yards away. 

The traditional diet of .worms is probably not 
so entirely to the taste of birds as one would sup- 
pose ; at any rate, on keeping a wild-caught Missel- 
Thrush in a cage I noticed that it would not come 
down from its perch for an earth-worm unless I 
stood well away, while a mealworm (an indoor- 
living beetle-grub which it could hardly come across 
naturally) would bring it to the floor at once. 

A Song-Thrush also I knew in India and 
supplied with gentles would not eat the local 
earthworms. I may say these had a very peculiar 
faint, sickly smell ; but on the other hand I cer- 
tainly rarely saw wild birds eating these — the 
only instances I can remember of seeing a bird with 
a worm in its possession being those of a Brown 
Shrike (Lanius cristatus) — a bird very like the hen 
of our Red-backed Shrike; the White-breasted 
Kingfisher {Halcyon smyrnensis), which is more a 
hunter than a fisher ; and the common Babbling- 
Thrush {Crater of us canorus), which I have often 
seen, on the other hand, pecking away at the earth- 
galleries of the termites. 

When these " white-ants " swarm, they furnish 
a free supper for a great variety of insectivorous 
birds, notably the Crow {Corvus spkfidens). Kite 



72 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

{Milvus govinda), King-Crow (Dicrurus aUr), and 
Roller (Coracias indie a). Similarly one can see the 
swarming of the true ants greatly appreciated by 
our Sparrows and Starlings, the latter especially 
capturing them with almost Swallow-like skill ; 
while on the other hand I have seen a Swallow 
reverse its natural habits by settling to pick these 
ants up off the ground. 

The most extraordinary aberration of feeding- 
habit I ever witnessed, however, was the behaviour 
of a Song-Thrush I watched at Oxford some years 
ago, as it was running along the edge of the stream 
that flows through Magdalen College grounds ; 
suddenly it dashed into the water and secured 
one of a shoal of minnows, which it beat on the 
ground and then swallowed whole. It is probable 
that fish are often eaten by land-birds when the 
opportunity presents itself, as they certainly are 
by water-birds not usually reckoned as fishers ; 
thus, I have seen a Coot I kept in India suddenly 
duck its head under and secure a little fish — and 
it must be remembered that to an insectiVorous 
bird anything will serve for an insect if it is small 
enough. 

In India I have seen the House-Mynah (Jcri- 
dotheres tristis) with a gecko lizard in its bill, and 
in Africa the exquisite Malachite Sun-bird (Nec- 
tarinia famosa), a nectar-eater by custom and 
structure, has been found to have fed on tiny 
lizards ; while in Britain the Missel-Thrush has 
not only been found preying on the young of the 



HIGH-FLAVOURED DAINTIES 73 

Hedge-Sparrow, but even carrying off a young 
Song-Thrush — a feat nearer actual cannibalism than 
any of those recorded above of birds usually reckoned 
as predatory. 

Predatory birds of all families, by the way, gener- 
ally agree in their liking for mice ; and these " smelly " 
little rodents are likewise much appreciated by omni- 
vorous feeders. Fowls and Ducks will swallow them, 
and in experiments on the feeding of the common 
Crow of America {Corvus americanus), in captivity 
the experimenters found that it appeared to be 
impossible for a Crow to be so full that he would 
refuse a mouse, and that timid new-caught speci- 
mens would crowd to the front of the cage to seize 
one. And we all know the service that Gulls and 
Rooks, as well as Owls and Hawks, did in the vole 
plague in Scotland a few years ago. 

American investigators have also found that 
Crows especially aifect, as investigation of stomach- 
contents shows, strong-smelling beetles, so that 
it is not safe to put down an insect as unpalatable 
simply because it smells nasty to us. In India I 
have found the great and very foul-odoured cock- 
roach {Peri-plane ta americand)^ an exotic and usually 
an indoor insect, was readily accepted not only 
by the Racket- tailed Drongo (Dissemurus faradiseus) 
and Babbling- Thrush in captivity, but also by the 
Brown Shrike outside, while I saw Kites and 
Sparrows also feed on casual specimens they had 
obtained. 

It is perhaps rather significant, however, that 



74 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

just as birds particularly readily eat termites, which 
are used as human food in Africa, so they are also 
particularly fond of grasshoppers and locusts, which 
are and have been more widely used as human food 
than any other insects, being even permitted to 
the Jews by the Mosaic law. Jerdon, whose obser- 
vations on Indian birds have never been superseded, 
though often amplified, considered that grass- 
hoppers were the staple food of insectivorous birds 
in India, and the observations of American investi- 
gators have shown that they are equally appreciated 
by the birds of North America. 

When locust-swarms invade a country, they are 
preyed on wholesale by a great variety of birds ; 
in the case of the only swarm — a very scattered one 
— I ever saw in India, it was amusing to see the 
Calcutta Sparrows, who probably had in few cases 
ever seen a locust before, valiantly tackle these huge 
shrimp-pink grasshoppers on the wing and bring 
them to the ground. 

Certain special kinds of birds also have long been 
known as the particular enemies of locusts, following 
them everywhere, and thus earning the gratitude 
of humanity ; of these the most noteworthy being 
the Rosy Pastor {Pastor roseus)^ the most beautiful 
of the Starlings, in Eastern Europe and in Asia, 
and the Pratincoles or Swallow- Plovers {Glare ola) 
in Africa, where also another Starling {Dilophus 
carunculatus) is a well-known " Locust-bird." 

Dragon- flies are also greatly appreciated by birds ; 
I have seen two very different species using them 



BUTTERFLIES AS BIRD DIET 75 

to feed their young in our Museum grounds in 
Calcutta — the Red-eared Bulbul {Otocomfsa emeria) 
a fruit-eating tree-bird, and the Indian Dabchick 
{Podicifes capensis). The victims of the Bulbuls 
were always, so far as I saw, the slender small 
Agrionid types ; so were the Dabchicks' generally, 
and it was amusing to see the little divers sneak 
along with head lowered to the surface, and capture 
the resting insect with a sudden spring. I once 
saw a bright scarlet Libellulid offered to a young 
Dabchick, and once saw a Brown Shrike capture 
one of these red dragon-flies in repose. It is at 
such times, I fancy, that these most active of 
insects probably fall victims, and the same remark 
would apply to flies. Quick as these are on the 
wing, I have seen the heavy, awkward-looking 
Muscovy Drake (Cairina moschata) waddle up and 
pick them off leaves with ease and certainty. 

To birds which are specialized for catching 
insects flying, such as Swifts, Swallows, etc., of 
course no flying insects present any difficulty, but 
it is significant that birds of this type, whose preying 
habits are so well known and conspicuous, rarely 
seem to attack butterflies. No bird is known as 
the " butterfly-catcher " anywhere, though we have 
" bee-eaters " and " fly-catchers," and though 
moths are ravenously pursued, as one may see even 
in London with the Sparrow. This is not to say 
that birds never eat butterflies, but that these do ' 
not form a common prey ; in India I certainly did 
not see a bird attack or possess one oftener than 



76 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

once a year on the average, though particularly on 
the look-out for this, and the American investiga- 
tions on the food of birds showed that in 40,000 
stomachs of insectivorous birds four butterflies only 
were found. 



CHAPTER IV 

Nutrition {continued) — Manipulation of food — Powers of digestion, 
differing in different groups — ^The formation of pellets or 
castings — Difference in the food of old and young in some 
cases — ^Different methods of feeding the young — Young 
assisting parents in feeding their juniors — Feeding of each 
other by the sexes — Drinking, and eating of such substances 
as salt and earth. 

Generally speaking, there is little manipulation of 
food among birds, it being generally swallowed 
whole ; and in many cases the power of deglutition 
displayed is almost as remarkable as in the case of 
reptiles. Fish-eating birds have the greatest repu- 
tation for bolting huge morsels, but some of the 
vegetable-feeding groups are very good seconds, 
especially the large fruit-eating Pigeons, some of 
which are instrumental in disseminating the nutmeg 
by swallowing it for the sake of the investing 
" mace." 

In accordance with this habit of wholesale swal- 
lowing, the tongue is of little importance in most 
birds ; and although it is generally well- developed, 
it is very rarely protruded beyond the bill, and 
generally lies nearly inert within the lower jaw. In 
the Pelicans and their alHes, Gannets, Cormorants, 

77 



78 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

and Snake-birds {Plotus), it is a mere pimple-like 
rudiment, as it is also in the curious Shoe-billed 
Stork {Balcenicep rex) ; it is tempting in this case 
to put its disappearance down to the necessity for 
clearing the course for swallowing large prey, but 
it is very doubtful if this explanation is correct, for 
a very short tongue, if not an actually rudimentary 
one, occurs in groups with different feeding-habits, 
while both long and short tongues are found in 
groups where the food is the same. 

Thus, the animal-feeding Kingfishers and the 
mainly fruit-eating Hornbills both have very short 
tongues ; the Herons have long tongues, the Storks 
short ones — both animal-feeders. Among vegetable- 
feeders, the Toucans, though so like the Hornbills 
in their form and habits, especially with regard to 
the bill and its use, have long tongues ; the Part- 
ridges have tongues of suitable length for their 
beaks, the Tinamous, so like them in feeding and 
general habits, very short ones, like their giant 
relatives of the flightless Ostrich tribe, all of which 
are short- tongued, including the small worm- eating 
Apteryx. 

It would seem, therefore, that in most cases the 
possession of a tongue proportionate to the bill 
or a very short one is a group-character, and that 
the organ is in a state of degeneration in many cases. 
I may mention, however, that in two cases I have 
seen birds indulge in the curious — for them— action 
of licking their chops ; in that of the Heron {Ardea 
cinered) and the Pied Kingfisher {Ceryle varia)^ both 



TONGUES AS FOOD-GETTERS 79 

fishers, but one long-tongued and the other short, 
though the beaks are so much aUke, 

In some cases, however, the tongue may be 
useful and even of vital importance ; we have seen 
it is so in the Crossbill, and in the Woodpeckers 
in the various honey-feeding groups it is most 
instrumental in getting the food. Woodpeckers 
have the tongue very long and wormlike, and can 
protrude it to a distance at least equal to the length 
of the bill ; the tip is horny and barbed along the 
sides, so that the organ not only acts as a probe 
but a grapple, and is used to drag out grubs, etc., 
that cannot be reached with the bill. 

In the Sapsucker above-mentioned the armature 
of the tip is slightly modified, so that it is more 
like a brush than a spear-head. I found in young 
specimens of the Indian Golden-backed Wood- 
pecker {Brachyfterus aurantius), which I reared 
from the nest, that the end of the tongue is plain 
until the bird is fiedged, the barbs not appearing 
till later ; one very tame one I had gave tactile 
demonstrations of the use of the tongue as a probe, 
for she used not only to sound the top of my head 
with her bill in a most uncomplimentary way, but 
tickle my ears as if they were so many worm-holes. 

In our Wryneck the protrusibility of the tongue 
and its use in feeding on ants and their cocoons 
has long attracted notice ; the quickness of action 
in this case is such that the ants' cocoon appears to 
the observer to be attracted as by a magnet ; in 
the bigger and slower-moving Woodpecker the 



8o BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

worm-like tongue is conspicuous enough. No 
doubt the apparent attraction of the Wryneck's 
food to its bill, and the bird's queer snake-like 
movements under excitement, were what commended 
it to ancient sorcery as a love-charm ; it was, as 
students of the classics know, bound to a wheel, 
which was spun as a love- charm, the " iynx " being 
invoked to bring the beloved person to the spinner. 
The custom, indeed, became proverbial ; " to spin 
the Wryneck " at any one was the Greek equivalent 
for our " setting one's cap " at him. 

To turn from Wrynecks and witches to Wood- 
peckers ; the extensile tongue is brought into 
play by others than the Sapsucker to procure 
vegetable juices ; a Woodpecker in Jamaica {Me- 
lanerfes striolatus) makes itself very objectionable 
to planters by puncturing the rind of the sugar- 
cane and sucking out the juice ; and another in 
Cuba (M. superciliaris) is such a pest by performing 
a similar feat in the orange-groves that it is, or 
used to be, the custom to turn the army on to 
Woodpecker-shooting when there was not a revolu- 
tion on hand to keep them healthily occupied. 
One of this species was some time ago in the pos- 
session of Mr. J. D. Hamlyn, the well-known bird- 
dealer, and used to amuse itself by using its tongue 
to grapple the tails of some Budgerigars or Grass- 
Parrakeets in the compartment immediately above 
it. 

These sap- and juice-sucking Woodpeckers natur- 
ally remind one of the true nectar-feeding birds, 



SYRUP-SIPHONS IN ACTION 8i 

of which the Humming-birds of America are far 
the best known ; and it is a curious and interesting 
fact that the Humming-birds and Woodpeckers 
both have the tongue supported on C-springs, for 
in both the horns of the " hyoid " bone, which 
supports the base of the tongue, are immensely- 
long and slender, and curve right over the back of 
the head. This is, however, only one of the cases 
in which a common internal character is no more 
important than a common external one, for there 
is no reason to suppose from the rest of their 
structure that the Humming-birds and Wood- 
peckers are related ; and the tongue itself is quite 
different in the Humming-birds, for though just 
as protrusible as the Woodpecker's tongue, it is 
composed of two horny tubes lying parallel, each 
side of the tongue curling inward, and the whole 
forming a suction-pump most efficacious in sucking 
up honey from flowers. 

Syrup-sucking is only a side-line with the Wood- 
peckers, but with Humming-birds it is certainly 
the main business in many cases, though all eat 
insects more or less, and some, such as the plain- 
coloured " Hermit " group {Phaethornis and allies) 
do not visit flowers at all, but feed only on insects, 
for which they search the trunks of trees and the 
undersides of leaves, always hovering, however, just 
as the flower-feeding species do before the flowers. 

That Humming-birds are essentially syrup- 
drinkers is shown by the fact that they come readily 
to glasses of artificial syrup put out for them, and 

6 



82 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

when newly captured will readily drink up syrup 
while held in the hand. So will the Sun-birds of 
the Old World — at any rate the two Asiatic species 
of which I have had experience, the Purple (Cin- 
nyris asiaticd) and the Amethyst-rumped (C. 
zeylonica). 

These small and brilliantly coloured birds are 
often mistaken for Humming-birds, just as the 
Hornbills of the East are often called Toucans, the 
American birds in each case having obtained the 
earlier and greater reputation v^th the public at 
large, as well as vdth naturalists. And indeed the 
habits of the Toucans and Hornbills are sufficiently 
alike to afford a good excuse for this ; but the 
Sun-birds, charming little creatures though they 
are, seem commonplace after the fairy-like hovering 
Humming-birds, since they simply hop about like 
Tits or small Warblers, and do not hover more 
than those birds do. Their tongue is also less 
specialized, though also tubular, but their diet is 
exactly the same, and Mr. A. Ezra, who had at the 
time of writing the only two living Humming- 
birds in this country — one specimen each of the 
Garnet- throated {Eulamfis jugularis) and of Ricord's 
(Sporadinus ricordi) — finds that they thrive well on 
the same fortified syrup, composed of honey, 
Mellin's baby-food, and condensed milk, which 
has well served the various species of Sun-birds for 
which he first used it. 

Neither Sun-birds nor Humming-birds cansupport 
existence for long on a diet of sugar-syrup alone, 






BOURU FRIAR-BIRD. 
The head in this largo Honey-eater is feathered, but the more tj-pical l-'riar-birds are 
bald-headed, whence the name given them. 



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SUGAR AS A NUTRIENT 83 

though they will live on it at times for weeks ; 
Mr. Hamlyn brought a specimen of the Malachite 
Sun-bird {Nectarinia famosa) all the way from 
South Africa on plain syrup only, and another 
London dealer, Mr. De Von, brought a Humming- 
bird — and a young one at that — over from the 
West Indies on the same simple diet. It is true 
that neither survived long, but these small birds 
must find more nutriment in sugar than it is gener- 
ally credited with affording. 

Besides the Sun-birds, which are typical Passerines, 
another passerine group are well-known nectar- 
feeders ; these are the Honey-eaters of Australasia, 
which are the common " small birds " of that 
region ; they are birds of quite ordinary appear- 
ance, for though some are very small and bright- 
hued, with long curved beaks, like Sun-birds, most 
are plain in tint, and in size equal Finches or even 
Thrushes and Jays, while their beaks are not very 
strongly curved. They have, however, a tubular 
tongue with a brush-tip, and feed mostly on honey 
when they can get it, though taking plenty of 
insects as well. All these honey- eating insectivores, 
by the way, capture insects with the beak, just as 
Woodpeckers often do. 

Other passerine birds scattered here and there 
in different groups are very fond of sweet juice, and 
have extensile if not very modified tongues for 
obtaining it ; such are the lovely leaf-green Bulbuls 
of the genus Chlorofsis in the East, the active 
Sibias among the Babblers, and the American 



84 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

Sugar-birds {Cosreba) and their allies, which are 
supposed to be related to the fruit- eating Finch- 
like Tanagers, and certainly grade into them if a 
whole series is examined, though the typical long- 
billed Ccerehas are so like Sun-birds that if they 
had been Oriental birds they certainly would have 
been classed with them. The most charming of 
all, the Yellow-winged Sugar-bird (Coereha cyaned) 
has often been exhibited at our large bird-shows. 

It is not surprising that the honey-sucking habit 
should have originated independently in several 
groups, for it occurs now and then in quite ordinary 
birds as an occasional trait. Gilbert White has 
described how the Lesser Whitethroat runs up the 
stem of the crown-imperial lily to sip the honey 
from the flowers ; and in India the Pied Mynah 
{Sturnofastor contra), although the most insectivorous 
of the Mynahs in the ordinary way, attends without 
fail at the blossoming of the magnificent red- 
flowering cotton- tree. 

It is not without interest in this connection to 
note that our Starling, introduced into New 
Zealand, has learnt the habit of drinking honey, in 
this case from the flowers of the New Zealand flax 
{Phormium tenax). As this plant is grown in some 
parts of England, it would be of interest to know if 
our Starlings here have learnt this habit ; if not, 
it would seem probable that in New Zealand the 
introduced birds have picked it up from a native 
honey- eater, the Tui or Parson-bird (Prosthemato- 
dera nova-zealandi^), which curiously resembles 



HONEY-EATING PARROTS 85 

them in plumage, being dark dull brown when 
young, and richly glossed with green and bronze 
when adult. 

Besides the family of Humming-birds and the 
various honey-sucking groups of Passerines above 
alluded to, there are honey-sucking Parrots, and 
in the case of these, too, the honey-sucking habit 
has evidently originated more than once quite 
independently. These birds have longer and more 
protrusible tongues than other Parrots — though the 
difference is not great — but they differ in detail. 

In the Lories, which are far the most numerous 
and best-known of these Parrots, the tongue has 
the papillae on its end much elongated, so as to 
form a very short-fibred brush ; in the Nestors, 
of which only the Kaka or Forest-Parrot of New 
Zealand {Nestor meridionalis) and the sheep-worry- 
ing Kea survive, the end of the tongue is plain, but 
has under it a plate of horn not unlike the human 
nail, of which the end is split into bristles ; while 
in the little Bat-Parrots (Loriculus)^ which are so 
peculiar in their habit of sleeping upside-down, the 
tongue is quite ordinary, although they are confirmed 
honey- eaters. 

It seems curious to find honey-eaters among 
such a group as the Parrots, vdth beaks so strongly 
specialized for cracking and crunching ; and as a 
matter of fact some at all events of the syrup- 
sipping forms will eat seed in confinement, crack- 
ing it in quite the normal way, although too much 
of such food is said to give them fits. 



86 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

The power of cracking the harder seeds is very 
highly developed in the typical Parrots ; as may 
usually be seen at the Zoo, the great Hyacinthine 
Macaw {Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) can crack a 
Brazil nut with no more effort than a Canary 
bestows on a grain of hemp-seed. This cracking 
and rejection of the husks of seed, etc., is particu- 
larly characteristic of Parrots, and of Finches 
among the Passerines, and in doing this the tongue 
undoubtedly comes into play to some extent, as 
may also be seen when a Parrot chews up a piece 
of food, as the larger species at any rate do, these 
showing the nearest approach to mastication that 
is found among birds. 

The seed-cracking habit, however, occurs also in 
the thicker-billed Larks ; the Larks, by the way, 
are a group particularly well exhibiting the grada- 
tion of beaks — our Skylark has an ordinary bill 
suitable for any purpose, picking up seed, shoots, 
or insects. From this a gradation can be traced 
to the long thin almost Hoopoe-hke bill of the 
great Desert Lark {Certhilauda alaudipes), only 
suited for digging and probing for insects ; and on 
the other side to the great heavy seed-cracking bill 
of Clot-Bey's Lark (Rhamphocorys clot-bey), which 
equals in size and strength that of most of the 
" Grosbeaks " among the Finches. And as Larks 
are only passerine birds, and very much alike except 
for their beaks, the evolution here would seem to 
be comparatively recent. 

Like the honey-sucking habit, the seed-cracking 



METHODS OF HUSKING SEEDS 87 

habit crops up here and there ; I have seen at 
the Zoo the small Red-billed African Hornbill 
{Lo'phoceros erythrorhynchus) cracking canary - seed 
with its great clumsy bill, though it was not very 
successful in rejecting the husk, and swallowed some 
of this as well as the grain. It is interesting, too, 
to offer monkey-nuts to Sea-gulls and Curassows, 
and see how they deal with this unknown food by 
crunching the brittle shell and then dropping it on 
the ground to pick up the disclosed nuts ; it evi- 
dently only needs a little more skill to make them 
efficient seed-shellers. 

Some birds, without strength of bill to crack 
seed, get over the difficulty by holding it down 
with their feet, and splitting it with the bill ; this 
is particularly characteristic of the Tits, and thus, 
I find, a Hooded Crow manipulates a monkey-nut. 

It is, of course, quite the usual custom of Tits 
and Crows to use their feet in holding any article 
of food which they need to divide, and in accord- 
ance with the general practice of birds which thus 
behave, they do not swallow their food in huge 
mouthfuls, but rather the reverse. Crows, indeed, 
may often be seen to gulp, apparently, large lumps ; 
but these are in reality only pouched beneath the 
tongue, to be afterwards disgorged and torn up. 

The habit of using the foot or feet when feeding 
is a comparatively uncommon one, and generally 
restricted to perching birds ; it is very familiar 
and most perfectly developed among the Parrots, 
which hold up their food to their mouth in quite a 



88 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

human way, though it will be noticed that as the 
foot cannot be turned inwards, as it is by fruit- 
bats when behaving rather similarly, it is the 
knuckles or dorsal surface of the foot that is pre- 
sented to the mouth. The habit, however, of 
" fisting it " when feeding is not universal among 
Parrots, being not practised by the little Love- 
birds (Jgapornis), the Budgerigar (Melopsittacus), 
and no doubt many others. The Kea when 
holding food in the foot does not raise this, but 
rests it on the hock, so that it has to stoop to its 
food, thus showing the habit less perfectly developed, 
as one would expect from its less specialized struc- 
ture. 

It is in this way, too, that those passerine birds, 
other than Crows and Tits, which use their feet in 
feeding hold their food ; such are the Shrikes and 
the Babblers, though the habit is not universal 
here either, albeit very characteristic of the more 
typical genera. Finches have very generally the 
habit of holding down food on to the perch with 
one foot, as any one may see on presenting the 
family Canary with a piece of salad, but, as I re- 
marked in the first chapter. Sparrows do not 
do this, and no doubt other Finches are equally 
inept ; but the point has probably never been 
worked out. 

Woodpeckers and Barbets seem not to use their 
feet in feeding, though the former will wedge an 
object into a crack to hammer it, like the passerine 
Nuthatch ; but Toucans in some cases hold food 



FEET USED AS HANDS 89 

down with one foot. Cuckoos rarely do so, but I 
have noted the habit in the Indian " Crow-Phea- 
sant " (Centropus sinensis) and the South American 
Guira or White Ani (Guira guira)^ both of them 
birds which are more Hke Magpies than Cuckoos 
in form and general habits, so that it is interesting 
to find them reproducing a Magpie gesture also. 
The curious little fruit- eating Colies or Mouse- 
birds of Africa also grapple food with one foot. 

Among birds of prey the habit of using the foot 
for prehension of food is apparently universal, as 
one would expect from the habit of actually cap- 
turing the food in this way. The food is usually 
so held down, but small objects may be grasped 
and held up to the mouth as by a Parrot, especially 
by Owls, which differ from Hawks and most birds 
which handle their food with their feet (to use a 
rather Hibernian expression) by bolting huge pieces 
and even whole small animals such as mice, their 
swallowing capacity being very great. Even the 
Vultures, which do not usually seize live food, and 
the long-legged running Secretary-bird, use their 
feet in feeding, and the Cariama, which is so like 
the Secretary in many ways, though really nearer 
the Cranes and Rails, employs its foot in the same 
way. So does the Weka (Ocydromus) among the 
true Rails, and the Blue Moorhens (Porphyrio) hold 
up their food in one foot just like Parrots, a 
fact which was known to Pliny, who specially 
mentions it. 

Except for these, however, the habit is hardly 



90 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

known among ground- and water-birds ; no swim- 
mer practises it, except the Skua Gull, and the 
common Fowl only in a casual and half-hearted 
way may put a foot on a piece of cabbage-leaf it 
is picking at. The Brush-Turkey {Catheturus lat- 
hamt), however, a less speciahzed bird, fairly grips 
its greenstuff ; the habit seems commoner among 
Australian birds than elsewhere, for I noticed even 
one of the Honey- eaters, a Miner (Myzanthd), hold 
a grape in this way, and a Fantail Flycatcher {Rhi- 
pidura tricolor) playfully grasping dead leaves, when 
these birds were on view at the Zoo. 

The details given above vdll seem to most orni- 
thologists hopelessly trivial, but the habit of using 
the foot or otherwise is a most important one to 
a bird ; those not possessing it are always liable 
to starve or choke, the latter calamity being a very 
common one among fish-eating birds, whose sup- 
plies are intermittent, while except in the case of 
fishing birds of prey they have little notion of 
dividing their quarry should it prove to be un- 
manageable. They do what they can by vigorously 
beating it on their perch in some cases, as in the 
case of the Kingfishers, and this habit of perch- 
whacking is also seen among the Bee-eaters and 
many other birds which do not supplement the bill 
with the foot. 

Similar is the custom of the Thrush in beating 
his snails against a stone ; I have seen it do the 
same thing wath a looped-up lob-worm, against the 
bottom bar of an iron railing, no doubt in order to 



BIRDS OF WEAK STOMACH 91 

prepare it for the tender stomachs of the young — 
a necessary preparation, for only while writing this 
book I was told of a case of a young captive Thrush 
being killed by being fed with worms by its human 
rearer, the annelids having fairly forced their way 
through the tender tissues out of the young bird's 
body. 

This I can quite believe, as, though I have not 
witnessed such a misfortune myself, I have had 
birds of mine, which had eaten too many maggots, 
pass them not only undigested, but alive, and this 
not only in the case of a very tiny species, the 
Crimson-backed Flower-pecker (Dicaum cruen- 
tatum), but even such a large one as the Gold-backed 
Woodpecker {Brachyfternus aurantius) ; with soft 
vegetable food, too, I have seen the Crimson-breasted 
Barbet or " Coppersmith " {Xantholcema hcemato- 
ce'phala) pass sultana raisins entire. This, however, 
and also the Flower-pecker, are fruit-eaters espe- 
cially ; and such birds seem to have the weakest 
digestions of any, and correspondingly the greatest 
appetites ; they are always gorging, and pass the 
food out in an almost unaltered condition, so that 
the structure of food swallowed is plainly perceptible. 
The same thing is noticeable with the fruit-eating 
bats. 

So sketchy, if I may use the expression, is the 
digestion of the little Tanagers of the genus Ewphonia 
(one of which, the Violet Tanager {E. violaced)^ is 
not infrequently imported), the most typical fruit- 
eaters of a group which gradually grades into the 



92 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

seed-eating Finches, that they have practically no 
stomach, the dilatation of the digestive canal where 
this ought to be being so slight as easily to escape 
notice, so as to give the food a straight run through. 

As an opposite example of a small passerine bird 
with remarkable powers of digestion I may cite 
the Hedge-Sparrow, which, though not a Sparrow 
nor any sort of Finch, being an insectivorous bird 
by structure and relationships, has a curious fond- 
ness for seed, preferring it, when caged, to soft 
food, and swallows it whole, digesting even hemp- 
seed husk and all ; moreover, with such an able 
digestion it has a vigorous appetite, eating continu- 
ally and voiding a corresponding amount. It will 
be noticed that, although seldom seen to pick up a 
morsel of perceptible size, this little bird is almost 
continually employed in eating when observed at 
liberty. 

The most perfectly organized digestive organs 
are found in the Pigeons, in which the crop, an 
enlargement of the gullet where the food is stored 
and macerated, is particularly large, and double, 
whereas in many birds it hardly exists, or is merely 
a temporary dilatation; in passerine birds which 
possess it, such as Finches, it appears when full as 
a bulge at the base of the neck above, not below 
as usual, and in birds of prey is most conspicuous, 
as it swells out through the feathers. Pigeons also 
have the posterior or grinding part of the stomach 
— the gizzard — which in many birds is not differ- 
entiated from the soft anterior or digestive portion, 



GRINDERS AND SOLVENTS 93 

particularly strong, and in some cases even provided 
with gristly or bony crushing- discs, in order to 
triturate nuts or the stones of fruit. 

The strong gizzard of Fowls and Ducks is also 
well known ; that of the Turkey is so powerful 
that in the experiments of Spallanzani, who more 
than a century ago conducted experiments without 
any regard for humanity but with unimpeachable 
accuracy, a leaden ball studded with small lancets 
was found after eighteen hours with its armature 
destroyed, while the gizzard was discovered quite 
uninj ured, when the Turkey was killed. And among 
the Ducks the shells of the hard molluscs and 
crustaceans that such sea-haunting forms as the 
Eider-duck feed upon are speedily reduced by the 
action of the gizzard to a substance resembling sand. 
No doubt the gastric juice has something to say 
in this result as well as the extraordinary power of 
the muscular contractions of the stomach ; for some 
birds with soft stomachs can do wonders in the way 
of reducing hard substances, such as bone. 

I have, for instance, given to the Goosander 
{Merganser castor)^ a fish-eating Duck with a soft 
stomach like a bird of prey, no less than forty fish 
about the size of small sprats, at a meal, just to see 
how many he could take ; and there showed no 
signs of bone in the droppings that were passed. 
I had a similar experience with another fish-eater, 
the Indian Dwarf Cormorant (Phalacrocorax Java- 
nicus)y which also digests fish bones and all ; a half- 
fledged young Indian Swift (Cypelus afflnis) given 



94 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

to one of these birds was also digested with its bones 
and growing feathers. The Shag {Phalacrocorax 
graculus) and the Indian Darter (Plotus melanogaster) 
also digest their fish bones and all, but the Common 
Cormorant (P. carho) casts pellets. 

This habit of pellet-casting is another that needs 
careful investigation ; unfortunately in many cases 
it is necessary to keep the bird in confinement to 
ascertain these points about digestion, and in the 
case of pellet-casting one has to be on the watch, 
for the castings are not always thrown up every day. 
In some cases a species may be exceptional among 
its group, as in the case of the common Cormorant 
above noted ; but commonly the casting of pellets 
or otherwise seems to be a group-character. It is 
very well-known among birds of prey, and the 
falconers of old were well aware that to keep their 
Hawks healthy it was necessary to provide them 
with some indigestible material with which the 
pellets might be formed, such as a tuft of wool 
dipped in blood to make it palatable. 

The fish-eating birds of prey throw up pellets 
as well as the flesh- and fowl-eaters ; so do the 
Kingfishers, both the fishing ones and the land- 
feeding forms like the Australian Laughing Jackass 
(Dacelo gigas) ; so do Herons, Gulls, Rollers, and 
Bee-eaters ; and among passerine birds. Shrikes, 
Thrushes, Flycatchers, and no doubt others. But 
the habit is not universal, and whatever may be 
said about the impossibility of digesting chitin, I 
have noticed no trace of insect remains among the 



BONES FOR BREAKFAST 95 

excrement of such birds as Starlings and Babblers, 
which do not cast pellets either, so that it looks 
as if they were in possession of a chitin-solvent ; 
though perhaps microscopical investigation might 
reveal comminuted particles of it in the dung. 

Spallanzani found that a captive Eagle, though 
casting pellets, did digest some portions of bones 
introduced into its stomach in a perforated tube 
wrapped in meat as a disguise ; it could also digest 
bread thus disguised, though it would not take it 
when openly offered, as Kites, even at liberty, will do. 

The Lammergeier or Bearded Vulture {Gyfaetus 
barbatus) has probably the strongest digestive powers 
of any animal-feeder, since it habitually eats bare 
bones, coming to a carcass after the other Vultures 
have left it, and swallowing such bones as it can. 
Others it takes up into the air and drops on the 
ground, descending in order to eat up the fragments. 
It treats tortoises in the same way, and Crows and 
Gulls are known, by the way, to practise the same 
trick with mussels. The Great Adjutant Stork 
(Leftoftilus dubius) of India also swallows bones, 
but it does not wait till Vultures have left a carcass, 
but comes and drives them away from it, and 
gobbles down all it can swallow, flesh and bones 
alike. 

The Lammergeier eats not only bones and flesh, 
but ordure, like the Scavenger Vulture, and a 
Desert- Chough {Podoces hendersoni) feeds on the 
dung of beasts of burden, not merely picking out un- 
digested grain, as so many bird« do, but swallowing 



96 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

the matter wholesale. This brings us to the con- 
sideration of the power of some birds of eating, un- 
harmed, food which would be not merely repulsive 
but poisonous to ourselves, and even to other birds. 
For instance, the poisonous nature of the skin- 
secretion of toads is well known ; yet I have known 
the common toad (Bufo vulgaris) eaten with 
impunity by the Laughing Jackass, and the Indian 
toad {B, melanostictus), which I never saw touched 
by Kites or Crows, by the Crow-Pheasant or 
Coucal, Pied Hornbill {Anthracoceros malaharicus) 
and Indian Roller {Coracias indica) ; the last two 
birds, it is true, were in captivity, but the Coucal, 
which was a hand-reared one, I allowed to range 
free ; but merely being in captivity will not make 
every bird eat so nauseous a mouthful as a toad, 
although under such conditions birds vnll often eat 
animals which are only moderately unpalatable, Hke 
some " warningly-coloured " insects. 

Bee-eaters eat wasps, as well as bees, and are 
probably immune to the sting, though the crushing 
process to which they subject their prey may put 
this out of action. The Laughing - Thrushes 
{Garrulax group), in captivity at any rate, rub 
these stinging creatures against their own tail- 
feathers before eating them, and the Pekin Robin 
(Liothrix luteus), a smaller member of the same 
group of Babblers, treats black ants (red ones it will 
not eat) in a similar way. The object is no doubt 
to wipe off the acid exuded, for a lady fancier 
recorded in one of the bird-fanciers' papers some 



HAIR IN THE STOMACH 97 

years ago that a tame Starling did this with horse- 
radish which had been soaked in vinegar, a deHcacy 
for which it promptly made when allowed to get 
to the meal-table. 

A more natural proceeding, one would think, 
would be to rub the offending morsel on the 
ground, a proceeding I have seen a captive Babbler 
(Crater ofus canorus) of mine follow out with a 
caterpillar, armed with most penetrating spiny 
bristles, before eating it. Such caterpillars, as well 
as the softer-haired ones, are generally avoided by 
all birds, but as is well known, the Cuckoo eats 
them so freely that its stomach gets lined with their 
hairs, and the common Cuckoo of America {Coc- 
cyzus americanus) has the same habit ; as this is a 
non-parasitic bird, it would seem that the habit of 
eating food unpalatable or dangerous to other 
birds is older in Cuckoos than the parasitic habit. 

When I was in Zanzibar in the early 'nineties 
I used every morning to see a pair of Glossy Cuckoos 
{Chalcococcyx cufreus) visit the little backyard of the 
hotel where I stayed to feed on the highly " warning- 
coloured " caterpillars of a moth of the same genus 
{Euproctis) as our " gold-tail," and the toad-eating 
Coucal is a member of the Cuckoo family, though 
not parasitic, like the American Cuckoo. 

Every one knows that it would not be safe to 
follow the guidance of the birds in eating wild 
berries ; a Hornbill, indeed, even feeds on the 
fruit of Strychnos nux-vomica, from which strychnine 
is obtained. Hutton also found, when collecting 
7 



9B BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

birds in the Himalayas, that when he poisoned a 
carcass with this drug, the Eagles which fed on 
it were killed, but the Vultures flew away unharmed. 
Tristram also records that when a pet Griffon 
Vulture of his devoured the contents of a half- 
pound pot of arsenical soap, the only result was a 
violent fit of vomiting. It is not surprising, per- 
haps, to find such endurance of virulent poisons 
amongst Vultures, whose ordinary food consists of 
putrid carrion, for it is well known that putrid or 
sour food is very dangerous to most birds other 
than carrion-feeders, even if they can be got to 
eat it. 

Some substances are taken in by birds for reasons 
that are at times hard to understand. The well- 
known habit of grain-eaters and some omnivorous 
forms, like Crows, of swallowing sand and gravel is 
easily explicable, since these substances aid the 
gizzard in comminuting the food ; but it is difficult 
to see why Hawks, living on flesh, and casting up 
indigestible substances, should need, to swallow 
gravel, which is shortly afterwards cast up again. 
As the stones are worn away by natural abrasion in 
the grain-eaters at all events, they are no doubt 
useful in supplying mineral matter to the body, 
just as the bits of shells and lime supplied to poultry 
are useful in providing shell-forming matter for 
the eggs. 

Some birds also eat earth ; a young Red-vented 
Bulbul {Pycnonotus bengalensis) I kept in India 
often did this, and I have seen a pair of an allied 



EARTH AND SALT AS FOOD 99 

race at the Zoo do the same ; but I do not know 
if this is done b^ wild birds. M. G. Rogeron in his 
admirable work " Les Canards," credits Ducks with 
being able to extract nutriment from earth ; he 
points out how eagerly tame Ducks ransack rain- 
puddles in a road after a shower, where there can 
be no animal or vegetable food to attract them, 
and recommends that earth be placed in the pans 
of water supplied to young Ducks which are being 
reared in confinement. 

I myself have seen Mallard in Hyde Park on a 
wet day bibbling assiduously in a puddle on the 
path, and though Ducks when doing this may be 
only getting gravel, it would not be so very remark- 
able if they and other birds could utilize earth as 
food, as we well know this to be done by earthworms, 
whose digestive organs are very like those of a bird 
in miniature, with a crop and a gizzard stocked 
with minute particles of grit all complete. 

It is not surprising that salt is liked by some 
birds, seeing the craving for this mineral is so widely 
spread ; it is chiefly consumed however by vegetable 
feeders such as Parrots and Pigeons, the last being 
particularly keen on it. The Wood-Pigeon will 
drink salt water in order to obtain it ; and whether 
it is liked or not, salt water must be drunk by the 
purely sea-birds such as Penguins, Auks, Petrels and 
marine Ducks like the Eider. Gulls, however, will 
come to fresh-water pools if they have the chance 
in order to drink the fresh water. 

Many birds, however, are curiously indifFerent 



joo BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

about water ; either they do not drink at all, or 
only do so when water is easily to be had, not 
making a special search for it, and being able to do 
without it in captivity. There are the same 
differences among mammals, but it is curious that 
in this class the total abstainers are all herbivores, 
the carnivora drinking readily and regularly, while 
among birds it is most particularly the animal- 
feeding kinds which can dispense with the fluid, 
though some of the vegetable feeders can do so as 
well. Owls and Hawks, for instance, can live with- 
out drinking, though both do drink ; in India it 
was a common sight to see Kites drinking at a 
pond. 

Kingfishers seem never to drink, either the 
fishing or the land-hunting kinds, though I did once , 
see a Laughing Jackass in the Calcutta Zoo make a 
sort of awkward attempt to do so. The aquatic- 
feeding kinds, like other fish-eating birds, no doubt 
swallow a good deal of water incidentally. This 
must, one would think, especially apply to those 
few favoured birds which have learnt the trick of 
swallowing under water, so familiar in the case of 
the Penguins in the diving- tank in the Zoo. Gener- 
ally, however, a diving fisher comes up vdth its 
fish, but among the Cormorants one of the African 
species {Phalacrocorax cafensis) can swallow under 
water, as also can the Shag {P. graculus). 

It is a curious thing that Humming-birds, Sun- 
birds, and Honey-eaters should drink water so 
freely, living on liquid food so largely as they do ; 



A DROUGHTY REGIMEN loi 

the honey- eating Parrots are also free drinkers. 
Parrots generally, however, can do without drinking 
to a remarkable extent, and if supplied with moist 
food in captivity care little for water ; it used even 
to be the custom to bring over the little Budgerigars 
{Melofsittacus undulatus) from Australia on dry 
seed only, with no water during the whole voyage, 
though under this cruel regime there was naturally 
a large mortality. It is a curious point about some 
of the Parrots, by the way. Cockatoos for instance, 
that their mouths are dry inside, there being 
apparently no secretion of saliva. In ordinary birds 
the supply is limited, just enough to moisten the 
mouth, and such a thing as dribbling or spitting 
rarely occurs as far as I have seen. 

Hornbills and Bustards can also do without 
water ; but I have seen both the Great Bustard 
and the Elate and Black Hornbills (Ceratogymna 
elata and C atrata) drink in captivity ; the action 
of the Hornbills was very awkward, as they pecked 
up the water as it were, an action also characteristic 
of the Rhea or American Ostrich {Rhea americana). 
It may indicate that the habit is a comparatively 
new one, or that it is being lost. 

With the exception of Pigeons, Sand-Grouse, and 
the Gouldian Finch (Poephila mirahilis) which 
drink in a continued draught like horses or cattle, 
the procedure of birds in drinking is very uniform, 
the water being scooped up in the lower jaw and 
allowed to run down the throat ; nectar-feeders, 
however, lick up their drink with their tongues. It 



102 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

is curious that the rapid and efficient method of 
continuous drinking above mentioned is confined 
to such a few birds, especially as there is nothing in 
the form of their bills and tongues to account for 
it ; similarly birds which swallow food under 
water have no special mechanism for facilitating 
this — it is merely a matter of '' having the knack 
of it " in both cases, evidently. 

The Sand- Grouse, though essentially desert-birds, 
have never become independent of water like the 
Bustards, no doubt having been spoilt^ so to speak, 
by their wonderful wing-power, which makes it 
easy for them to visit even distant watering-places 
twice a day ; and they even water their chicks 
in a perfectly unique way, first observed and re- 
corded in captive birds by Mr. Meade-Waldo. The 
male bird, which undertakes this duty, soaks his 
lower plumage in water and then goes to the chicks, 
which suck his wet feathers. The aviary bird of 
course had only to walk to his chicks, but the vdld 
one must surely not have very far to fly to them if 
the device is to be of any use, since flying in the 
dry atmosphere of the places these birds frequent 
would soon dry the plumage. Generally speaking 
only birds which disgorge food for their young, like 
Pigeons, Parrots, Gulls, etc., can give them water, 
and it is not given in a special dose by these, so 
far as I am aware ; the young get it incidentally, 
so to speak, with the food administered. 

Birds often feed their nestling young on food 
different from that which they ordinarily eat 



INSECTS FOR THE NURSERY 103 

themselves, and even self-feeding chicks often 
shov^ tastes in food different from those of adults. 
In almost every case the difference consists in the 
young bird's diet being more animal in character 
than that of the old ones ; thus, Finches, v^hich live 
mainly on seed and other vegetable food themselves, 
are frequently very largely insectivorous when feed- 
ing young, as any one may see v^ith the common 
Sparrow. I found also the young Bulbul I men- 
tioned above would not swallow fruit if it could 
possibly help it, but gladly took flies and pea-meal 
paste (a common article of food for insectivorous 
birds among native fanciers in India), although the 
adults feed, I think, more on fruit than on insects. 
I have also referred above to the Red-eared Bulbuls 
catching dragon-flies for their young, though I 
never saw the adults eating these insects. 

This habit of feeding the young on insects is a 
great stumbling-block to the class of fanciers, very 
numerous nowadays, who like to get their birds 
to breed in their aviaries, for birds are, in the case 
of species who believe in insects as a nursery regimen, 
so obstinate about it that they commonly refuse 
to use any substitute, at any rate during the early 
stages of rearing, and even, in the case of insec- 
tivorous birds, often give up eating the artificial 
mixture themselves. Probably the mental excite- 
ment due to parenthood produces a reversion to 
the state of mind of the newly-caught bird, which 
has to be gradually accustomed to the artificial 
diet, just as birds previously tame often conceal 



104 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

their nests and act suspiciously towards their owner 
when nesting. 

In some cases birds alter the diet as the young 
grow older ; American investigators, for instance, 
have found that Grackles (Quiscalus) give the 
young as their first meals very tiny spiders, and I 
noticed that a pair of Indian Dabchicks {Podicifes 
capensis) 1 watched for years on our pond in the 
Museum grounds in Calcutta fed the young for 
the first week or so only on insects and small 
freshwater prawns, not on fish as well, as they 
did later on. 

With regard to the tastes of active Self-feeding 
chicks, every one must have noticed the extreme 
activity of young Ducks in capturing flies, which 
seem to form their chief food ; and the young of 
the Tufted Duck (Fuligula fuligula) catch small 
fish ; the Red Grouse also, one of the most limited 
of vegetarians when adult, feeding almost entirely 
on heather and bilberry, nevertheless is largely 
insectivorous when young, like the more omnivorous 
Pheasant and Partridge. Young Great Bustards 
are also far more animal feeders than the old birds, 
which are mainly vegetarian. 

I do not know of any bird which is vegetarian 
when young and afterwards takes to animal diet, 
but many can live on vegetable food from the first, 
such as Parrots among nestlings and goslings 
among the active type of young birds ; I also found 
that young Indian Barbets of two species, the 
Blue-cheeked (Cyanops asiatica) and the above- 



WOOD FOR INFANT DIET 105 

mentioned " Coppersmith " could be reared quite 
satisfactorily on banana only, though, to be sure, I 
did not get them for this purpose till half-fledged. 
Among ducklings, too, those of the Mandarin, and 
sometimes the Wigeon, graze when quite tiny, as 
well as hunting for insects. 

Birds certainly give some very queer things to 
their young at times ; many years ago I saw at 
Oxford Starlings carrying bits of cherries which 
were not even quite ripe, to their young in the 
nest, so that I am not inclined to put down to 
confinement the action of some Indian House- 
Mynahs {Acridotheres tristis) I saw a few years 
ago breeding at the London Zoo, which regaled 
their offspring with bits of ivy leaves, though 
liberally supplied with insect food. Mrs. Johnstone, 
too, who first bred in this country the lovely 
Leadbeater's Cockatoo (Cacatua leadheateri) of 
Australia, says they fed the young mostly on rotten 
wood, of all things, a jejune diet which makes M. 
Rogeron's suggestion that Ducks assimilate earth 
seem more probable. 

But the queerest article of diet for young birds 
is that supplied them by some of the larger Grebes 
— their own parents' feathers ; this is, of course, 
in harmony with the strange feather-eating habit 
of the old birds, which appear to be able to digest 
this strange diet, or at any rate to partially do so, 
since they do not cast pellets — as I know from care- 
ful observations on captive birds — and comminuted 
feathers have been detected in their intestines. I 



io6 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

have seen a Great Crested Grebe at the Zoo eat 
about half-a-dozen feathers in a quarter of an 
hour, as they came out when it was pluming itself ; 
but I never saw Dabchicks either eat their own 
feathers or give any to their young. 

A very rare and interesting habit is that of 
young birds feeding each other ; I only know of 
two cases in which it is regularly done — those of 
the common Moorhen and apparently the Coot. 
In both cases it is the birds of the first brood, by 
this time nearly full-feathered but still unable to 
fly, which thus help their parents with the small 
downy chicks of the second batch ; it is a common 
sight in the case of the Moorhens in the London 
parks, and it was in St. James's Park that I saw a 
young Coot feeding its junior. This case was a 
particularly curious one, because I saw the feeding 
young bird actually cry for food to the parent, and 
on one occasion eat what it thus got itself, and 
another hand it over to the small chick. 

When rearing a brood of young Indian Rollers 
(Coracias indica) I noticed that, although so ravenous 
that when they saw me coming with the raw meat 
on which I chiefly fed them they would not only 
yell lustily but start fighting vigorously, yet a bird 
which had had enough would feed another one with 
the next piece given it ; this, however, was, I 
expect, an abnormal piece of benevolence, chiefly 
prompted by the bird's dislike to give up what it 
had once seized, while it could not itself swallow 
it. Similarly, the instinct of birds which disgorge 



LOVE-GIFTS OF TIT-BITS 107 

to feed their young may often be excited by stuffing 
themselves ; canary-breeders well know that the 
addition of a tasty item to the menu is the best way 
to start the old birds feeding the young ones 
vigorously. 

One of the most touchingly human actions of ^ 
birds is the feeding of each other by the sexes ; 
generally of the female by the male, which is 
reasonable enough, since he has to conciliate her 
feelings, and any extra food that she may obtain 
without extra exertion is so much to the good, 
having in view the physiological demands made 
upon her during laying and sitting, to say nothing 
of the care of the young, in which she usually takes 
the chief part if not undertaking it altogether. 
Often the female is fed on the nest, as by the Rook ; 
but this courtesy is often extended to her at other 
times, though more especially at the breeding-season; 
in fact, when one bird is seen to feed another, it is 
generally a sure sign of the pair having decided to 
enter on matrimonial affairs. 

The sight is common among our domesticated 
birds ; the well-known " billing " of Pigeons and 
Doves is merely the female being fed from the 
crop by the male, as the young are by both sexes ; 
the Cock gallantly calls the hens to any morsel he 
has found, and when food is thrown does not eat 
until they are all served ; Canaries are so keen on 
feeding something when in breeding condition 
that they will, when cocks are kept, as usual, singly, 
disgorge food on the perch and eat it again, and 



io8 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

Parrots will attempt to feed people for whom they 
entertain a peculiar regard. One may even see the 
Robin, solitary and selfish as it usually is, present a 
worm to its mate, and even among the Cuckoos, 
proverbial emblems of selfishness, I have seen the 
male of the Koel (Eudynamis honor ata), the com- 
monest species of India and a fruit- eater, give to 
the female berries plucked from the bough on 
which they were both sitting. 

Here the action is the merest courtesy, comparable 
to our habit of rising to open the door for a lady ; 
at the opposite extreme of supplying all the female's 
necessities is the action of the Hornbills, among 
which the hen walls herself into the nesting-hole 
in a tree with a plaster of her own droppings, while 
the cock feeds her through a slit left in this, envelop- 
ing his contributions in a gelatinous envelope 
secreted from the coat of the stomach — its epithelial 
lining, in fact ; at any rate, such bags of food have 
been disgorged by Hornbills in captivity and it has 
been assumed, perhaps too hastily, that the action 
was normal in nature also. The Hoopoe, an ally 
of the Hornbills, also assumes the entire responsi- 
bility of the maintenance of the sitting hen, though 
he does not encapsule her rations nor does she 
wall herself into the nest. 

One would naturally suppose that the habit of 
feeding the female would be generally adopted 
among birds ; but it is doubtful if this is the case, 
and there are certainly many exceptions even among 
groups in which, as in the above instances, the 



MALE BIRDS STAND TREAT 109 

kindly act is well known to the most ordinary 
observer. It seems to be universal in the Pigeon 
family, indeed ; but it certainly is not in the 
poultry tribe ; the Guinea-fowl feeds his hen like 
the common Cock, and so does the Satyr Tragopan 
{^r ago fan satyr a) ; but the common Pheasant 
and Peacock do not, nor do the Gold and Silver 
Pheasants. Quails do it, both the Harlequin Quail 
{Coturnix cafensis) and the pigmy Painted Quail 
{Excalfactoria sinensis) ; I have seen nothing 
more quaintly appealing in bird life than the 
action of a cock Harlequin Quail in one of the Zoo 
aviaries, which came up to me and the keeper who 
was showing me through, drawn up to his full height 
and looking with such an obvious request that I 
asked instinctively " What does he want ? " '' Meal- 
worms," said my companion, " but not for himself 
— for the hen," and sure enough he honestly gave 
her every one he received. 

Feeding the hen is, I believe, as universal among 
Parrots as among Pigeons ; but it certainly is not 
so among Finches — although Goldfinches and Lin- 
nets and many others do it ; Sparrows certainly do 
not, nor, I believe, do Chaffinches. But it is 
difficult to prove a negative, and the action is 
often confined to birds in the height of breeding 
condition, of which it is among fanciers the well- 
known index, as has been stated above. 

Among birds of prey I have never seen a case, 
although Kites (Milvus govinda) were so common 
about Calcutta, and wife-feeding by their neigh- 



no BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

hours and rivals, the House- Crows {Corvus splendens), 
was one of the commonest actions to be observed ; 
but O. St. John saw one Kestrel feed another in 
Morayshire, and Mr. E. Selous has fully observed 
in Iceland the victualling of the hen Merlin by her 
mate when rearing young. 

I cannot recall any case among waders and water- 
fowl, except among Terns, which feed the sitting 
hen and also make love-gifts when courting ; pro- 
bably the habit is pretty widely spread among such 
fishing-birds which seek food away from home, but 
it cannot be taken for granted. Among the Duck 
tribe, affectionate mates as these are, the action is 
almost entirely confined to the Carolina or Wood 
Duck of North America (^x sponsa), which makes 
a show of his love-gift, holding his head and tail 
high up when offering it, this attitude being his 
display position. Neither Geese nor Swans, though 
life-pairers and very devoted, ever seem to feed 
their mates at any time. 

It is a curious fact that in at any rate some cases, 
when the roles of the sexes are reversed, and the 
male incubates and cares for the young, the female 
is so masculinized that she not only fights for the 
male but feeds him ; at all events, this was observed 
by Mr. D. Seth-Smith, the Bird Curator at the 
Zoo, when as a private aviculturist he bred two 
species of Hemipodes or Button-Quails (Turntx), 
Quail- like birds in which the hen is the superior 
sex. 

As this is not usually the case in birds which 



SELFISHNESS NO DRAWBACK in 

build tree or rock nests and have helpless young, 
female feeding must not be looked for here, although 
an observer of the home life of the Peregrine Falcon 
has noted that the hen, the larger and stronger 
bird, as is vi^ell known, supplied her smaller mate 
v^ith food for the young, part of which he inci- 
dentally ate himself — a case exactly the opposite 
of that of the Merlins observed by Mr. Selous, 
although the two species are not remotely related 
and present just the same kind of sexual difference 
— with the advantage in size on the female side. 

Except when it goes so far as feeding the sitting 
or rearing hen and the young, it is doubtful whether 
this habit has any survival value of importance — 
it is merely the outcrop of kindliness of nature, 
similar to that which restrains some birds, such as 
the Cock and the male of the Cotton- teal {Nettafus 
coromandelianus) from retaliating on a female under 
attack from her. 

That it has little utilitarian significance is shown 
by the fact that the selfish Pheasant can seduce 
away a hen from the gallant and generous Cock if 
he can conquer him in combat, which is usually 
the case with all breeds of poultry but the Game ; 
and the Carolina Duck will sometimes mate with 
the related Mandarin Drake, though this bird's 
idea of politeness to the female, even of his own 
species, does not go further as a rule than not 
rudely squabbling with her for a morsel. I must 
admit, however, that I have once seen him go so 
far as awkwardly to drop the bit and let her take 



112 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

it, but generally speaking, his extreme ostentation, 
combined with an inconsiderateness not shown by 
the more modestly and tastefully attired Carolina, 
looks as if it were designed as a satire on the human 
dandy, notoriously the worst and most indifferent 
of husbands. The parallel, however, would be a 
dangerous one, for except in generosity, the Man- 
darin yields little if at all to his American cousin as 
a lover. 



CHAPTER V 

Propagation — Care of young — Different types of young birds — 
Different modes of feather-development, as seen in young 
Fowl, Pigeon, or Duck, for instance — Egg-coloration and its 
meaning and variations — ^Prolificacy and otherwise — Incuba- 
tion mounds — ^Periods of incubation. 

The care of old birds for their young has always 
attracted the attention of humanity, and one of the 
best known allusions to nature in the Bible is the 
text that speaks of the fowl gathering her young 
under her wings. As one would expect, it is gener- 
ally the hen that has most to do with the incubation 
of the eggs and the nursing, so to speak, of the 
young, while they are still so small and weak that 
they need to resort to a parent for warmth, being 
unable to keep up their temperature by themselves. 
This performance on the part of the parent is 
termed brooding or " hovering," and in the cases 
where it can be watched, as in- birds which brood 
their active young on the ground, it will be seen 
that the parent sits down on its heels, while the 
young run under and are sheltered by the plumage 
of the breast and sides. In the case of a young 
Avocet that was hatched and reared at the Zoo some 
years ago, it was interesting to see how the little 
8 "3 



114 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

thing would stand up under its long-legged parent, 
whose body was not very near the ground even with 
the legs bent, so that only its little legs were visible, 
the body being concealed in the parent's feathers. 

Some birds, however, may brood their young 
on the back under the wings, like the common 
Mute Swan, in which this seems to be the habit of 
the female only ; in the case of a pair of the South 
American Black-necked Swan (Cygnus melancory- 
phus) which bred at the Zoo some years ago, how- 
ever, the male carried the cygnets in this way 
quite as often as the female, but this may not be 
normal with the species, as I never saw the male 
of the Kew pair do it when he had young — he seemed 
to spend most of his time in making unprovoked 
attacks or at least threatening naval demonstrations 
against the Geese. 

In Grebes the young are habitually carried in 
this way on the back of the swimming parent, at 
any rate at first, and I have been able to observe in 
the case of the Indian Dabchick {Podicifes cafensis) 
that the parent when brooding them on the nest 
at night also takes them on its back there ; cer- 
tainly the wet nest would be a most inconvenient 
and probably unsafe bed for them, as they are far 
less hardy than young Ducks, and even these can 
easily have too much wet. Both of the pair of 
Dabchicks I watched carried the young, but espe- 
cially the bird I took to be the female, although it 
was the larger ; coloration in Grebes is no help 
in fixing the sex. While one bird carried the 



FEMINISM A FAILURE 115 

chicks, the other hunted for food, so the co-operation 
was perfect. 

In many species, however, one sex does everything 
or nearly so, and this is generally the female, as 
remarked above, but extra- fatherly male birds 
occur, which take over all the ordinarily feminine 
duties. These comprise nearly all the '' Ratite " 
or primitive flightless birds — the Emu, Casso- 
waries, Rheas, and Kiwis or Apteryxes, but not 
the true Ostrich ; the Partridge- like Tinamous of 
South America, which, although flyers, are really 
" ratites " by anatomical structure, with the excep- 
tion of the keel on the breast-bone ; the Hemipodes 
or Button- Quails, and the little Coot- footed Sand- 
pipers or Phalaropes. 

It will be noticed that although some of these 
birds are enormous in size, none are remarkable in 
any other way, so that the inference is pretty plain 
that feminism in the bird world, though quite a 
workable arrangement for reproducing the species, 
is not the way to produce a high type of birds, the 
great " runners " being merely lumbering degener- 
ates except the one which has resisted feminism, 
the true Ostrich, which is a magnificent creature 
in his way, and holds his own in a region full of 
formidable mammals, both carnivores and herbi- 
vores. 

The so-called American Ostrich, the Rhea, seems 
to have got into a curious mixture of roles in his 
family aft^airs ; unlike the Emu and Cassowaries, 
in which the males are purely feminine in char- 



ii6 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

acter, while the larger females are quarrelsome and 
non-incubators, he is larger and fiercer than the 
hens, and fights fiercely to win them from rival 
males, whereupon the ladies pool their eggs in the 
nest he scratches out, and leave all the rest of the 
work to him. A cock Rhea might have been seen 
in the London Zoo at the time of writing this, 
proudly escorting a brood of young, whose mother 
cared so little for them that she had to be driven away 
from the special food provided for their delecta- 
tion, which the father hardly touched ; this eating 
of the young birds' food by the indifferent mother 
being apparently the usual thing in such species. 

Generally, of course, if there is an indifferent 
parent it is the male especially if decorated; Cocks 
and Drakes, for instance, do not aid their mates in 
rearing the family, but the habit is not constant in 
groups. Male Partridges and Ganders protect the 
young, and the former even brood them ; male 
Swans also sedulously guard their cygnets, as male 
Sheldrakes do their ducklings. 

In many birds there is a very fair divisiofi of 
labour, as with Pigeons, Sand-Grouse, and the 
true Ostrich, the cock doing half the work if not 
even more. Among the domestic Pigeons and 
Doves, for instance, it will be noticed that while 
both feed the young indiscriminately, the sitting 
is very evenly divided, the cock sitting from about 
ten in the morning till about five in the evening, 
while the hen takes the rest of the time, and has 
perhaps the best of the bargain, as she would 



PIGEONS ADMINISTER PAP 117 

have to sit quiet at night in any case. In the 
Ostrich and Sand-Grouse the reverse is the case, 
the hen sitting by day and the cock by night ; the 
cock Ostrich, hov^ever, is said to show^ more solicitude 
about the young than the hen, and in the case 
of the Sand-Grouse it is the cock that waters the 
chicks as above described. 

The feeding of the young of Pigeons is accom- 
plished during the early infancy of the " squeakers," 
to use the fanciers' appropriate technical term, by 
a curd-like substance actually secreted from the 
walls of the crop in both sexes ; and as this, except 
for the absence of sugar, closely agrees with milk 
in chemical composition and properties, the old 
First of April expression '' Pigeon's milk " is some- 
thing more than a mere joke. As the birds grow 
older this is mixed with half-digested food, and 
the secretion ceases altogether long before the birds 
are reared. 

Pigeons, by the way, feed their young by taking 
the bills of the young, which are soft and much 
bulged at the base, into their own, and pumping 
up the food into their mouths, whence the young 
suck it down ; the method employed by Parrots 
is similar, and so is that of the Ibises. Very awk- 
ward indeed it looks, too, when the young Ibises 
are fledged and still want feeding, for though the 
bill of the nestling Ibis is not much longer than a 
young Pigeon's, it is nearly full-length when the 
bird leaves the nest, and it looks a most unpleasant 
proceeding for the old bird to have a long bill 



ii8 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

thrust unceremoniously down its throat. But in 
the case of Penguins and of the Pelican group? 
including Cormorants and Gannets, matters go 
much further ; at any rate the young bird does, 
for it gets its head and even neck well down the 
long-suffering parent's gullet. 

I well remember in Calcutta getting hold of a 
fledging young nestling of the Darter or Snake- 
bird, which was brought to the market for sale 
half-reared. It was charmingly tame, but the 
head, at the end of its long slender neck, wobbled 
most provokingly when I tried to feed it, so that, 
eager though it was for the fish I offered, it was a 
difficult matter to get one placed in its mouth. 
The obvious move that suggested itself was of 
course to hold the wobbling head in one's hand 
to steady it ; and to my intense surprise, as soon 
as I did this, the bird's mouth suddenly expanded 
to about twice its previous size, so that it looked 
like a funnel. Obviously the clasp of my hand 
reproduced the pressure of the parent's gullet, to 
which the nestling instinctively responded. 

Since then I have read an interesting note by 
Miss R. Alderson, a keen amateur of Doves, about 
her difficulties in getting food into the mouth of 
a very young Dove- nestling she was rearing, until 
its beak happened to slip between her fingers, when 
it opened it at once, and was thereafter fed quite 
easily ; evidently in this case a little pressure to 
represent the feel of the parent's bill was all that 
was needed. 



SPOILT CUCKOO CHILDREN 119 

The method of putting the beak and often a good 
deal more, as we have seen, inside the parent's 
mouth, is, however, not the usual one with nestlings 
which are fed by the parents ; the more popular 
method is for the young to gape and the parents 
to place the food in their open beaks, whether they 
disgorge it or bring it in morsels. This may be 
seen in the case of Canaries, Sparrows, and small 
birds generally, to say nothing of less familiar 
creatures like Hawks, Owls, Kingfishers, Rollers, 
etc. Nightjars grip the bill of their parent with 
their own, and young Storks, judging from the 
behaviour of specimens which are reared now and 
then at the Zoo, expect the old birds to throw up 
the food into the nest, when they pick it up and 
swallow it — a most insanitary- looking proceeding. 

Generally speaking, nestling birds have no idea 
of picking anything up till they are nearly fledged, 
sometimes not till after they can fly, and would 
starve in the midst of plenty through not dreaming 
of stooping to pick up their food. Cuckoos are 
particularly slow in learning to pick up food, and 
in nature seem to be thoroughly spoilt by their 
foster-parents. They are especially ravenous, and 
this applies to the non-parasitic " Crow- Pheasant " 
of India, as well as to the parasitic species. 

Even among our few domesticated birds we are 
well acquainted with two different types of young, 
which may be conveniently called active and passive, 
the " nidifugous " and " nidicolous " young of 
ornithologists ; the latter, about which I have 



120 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

been speaking above, being exemplified by the 
" nestling " young of Canaries, Budgerigars, Doves, 
and Pigeons, while our ordinary poultry, v^ith their 
active running or swimming chicks, exemplify the 
former. 

When we study the bird class family by family, 
we shall find that the cleavage between these two 
types of nestlings is very definite and complete ; 
that is to say, they never both occur in the same 
family. All young Pigeons, so far as is known, are 
as helpless as those of the common Pigeon, even 
in the case of those Ground-Doves found in America 
and Australia which so closely resemble Partridges 
in general habits ; and all young of the Duck family, 
from the grazing Geese to the fishing Mergansers, 
are as well able to " paddle their own canoe " as 
the familiar domestic duckling. 

The two types crop up independently, moreover, 
in very distinct families ; no one would think of 
classing Pigeons and Hawks together because they 
both have helpless young and feed them, or putting 
Fowls and Ducks in the same group because in both 
cases the young are active and more or less inde- 
pendent. It will be seen that the two types of 
young have no relation to the general habits of the 
parents, whether carnivorous or vegetarian, terres- 
trial or aquatic ; the production of one or the 
other type may be regarded as a minor habit, 
generally connected with the style of nest or 
nesting-site used. Thus, birds which have a well- 
developed perching foot, such as Pigeons, Herons, 



PASSIVE AND ACTIVE YOUNG 121 

Cormorants, and Parrots, to say nothing of the 
numerous tribe of Passerines, generally build above 
ground on bushes, trees, or rocks ; and such will 
naturally enough have helpless young ; those which 
have the foot only formed for running or swimming, 
and the hind-toe very small or absent, are naturally 
less apt to perch, build on the ground as a rule, and 
have young which are active runners or swimmers. 

It thus becomes possible in most cases to predict 
the probable nature of a previously unknown bird's 
young by the structure of the adult's foot ; but 
such detective-story methods in natural history are 
to be employed with great caution, and in the 
present case, as might be expected, exceptions 
occur. To take the flightless birds, for instance, the 
rule works out all right with the flightless runners, 
from Ostrich to Apteryx, all of which have non- 
grasping feet with the hind-toe absent in all but 
the last ; but it fails when we turn to the Penguins, 
which have a dwarfed useless hind-toe, even situated 
on the inner side of the foot, and yet have young 
which are helpless nestlings, in spite of the labour 
thus entailed on the flightless parents in trudging to 
and from the sea to get supplies for them, a labour 
in which the male is as earnest as the hen. 

Among the flying birds, too, we find that in the 
Petrels, which are by no means perchers, having 
the hind toe reduced to a nail, and breed more 
often in holes in the ground than anywhere else, 
that the young are helpless and fed with an oily 
substance disgorged into their mouths by the parents. 



122 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

Then on the other side, there is at least one 
family of tree-haunting and high-nesting birds which 
has active young, that of the Curassows and Guans 
{Cracidce), perching game-birds with gripping feet, 
which take the place of Pheasants and their kin in 
the forests of the warm parts of America. The 
chicks here are fed by the parent for a day or so 
at any rate, judging from the behaviour of captive 
specimens, and they are hatched with the wing- 
feathers as well developed as in a chicken a fortnight 
old ; it seems that they follow the parents along 
the boughs and creeping vines — so I was told by a 
naturalist, who said the chicks could be caught by 
shaking them down ; no doubt this is one reason 
why so many of these birds are so extraordinarily 
tame in captivity ; they have presumably been 
hand-reared after such a method of capture. 

Some of the typical game-birds, for instance the 
Javan Peacock {Pavo muticus), the Tragopans, and 
also the Argus, have the quills well developed at 
birth, so that there is not such a great gap between 
more ordinary game-birds and the young of the 
Megapodes or Mound-builders, which are hatched 
with wings quite full-fledged and fit for immediate 
flight, though the body is downy. These represent 
the extreme of precocity in modern birds, and are 
the most independent of all young ones, since the 
parents take no trouble about them at all, as, being 
able both to feed and to fly, as well as to run, all 
they need to gain is experience and size in order 
to be as good as any adult. 



WINGS FIRST TO FEATHER 123 

The Game-birds, then, typify one method of 
fledging, which is found among few others than 
them, that of the wings developing long before 
the rest of the plumage. Even our domestic 
chickens show this well, although not " able to fly 
in a few hours," as a much-respected authority 
stated. Chicks of this type pick up most of their 
food, though the hen often draws their attention 
to it ; young Peafowl and Turkeys do not begin 
to feed for a longer period after hatching than 
Fowls, a peculiarity which is no doubt the reason 
why poultry-keepers stigmatize Turkey-chicks as 
stupid, and needing to be " taught to peck " — 
the real reason being that the yolk in the intestines 
at the time of hatching lasts them longer than it 
does Fowl-chicks, though even these need nothing 
for the first twenty-four hours. 

Besides the Game-birds, Hemipodes, and Tina- 
mous, the Rhea and the common Cape Penguin 
{Spheniscus demersus) exhibit the peculiarity of 
fledging first on the wings. 

At the other extreme of precocity comes the 
Fowl's domestic companion, the Duck ; ducklings 
are even more lively than chickens, need less brooding 
and for a shorter period, and are more enterprising 
in foraging for food, on land as well as in what is 
popularly regarded as their only proper element. 
In fact, a poultry-breeder once complained to me 
that ducklings of the Indian Runner breed simply 
ran away from the old hens who were acting as 
foster-mothers, who could not keep up with them, 



124 • BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

young ducklings being notoriously insubordinate, 
at any rate to hens, though they will listen to a 
Duck mother if she calls to them. 

But in spite of their independence, which is 
greater than that of any young birds other than the 
Megapodes, the fledging of young Ducks is most 
curiously slow. They grow and grow, and lose 
all their chubby infantile prettiness, and get more 
than half as big as their parents before any feathers 
. come at all ; and even when these do appear — on 
the shoulders first, and then the sides of the breast — 
the wings remain very tiny, out of all proportion 
to the powerful legs, and do not enlarge and sprout 
quills till the bird is full- feathered almost every- 
where else and is nearly full-sized ; this is the 
stage when the birds are known as flappers. Geese 
and Swans also develop in exactly the same way. 

Some other water- or marsh-birds show a similar 
slowness in growing feathers to replace the down, 
and in the enlargement and quill-growth of the 
wings ; these are the Rails — as any one can see in 
the case of the young of the common Moorhen 
and Coot — the Cranes and the Grebes. Young 
Grebes have a special remarkable peculiarity of 
their own in fledging ; the head-feathering " hangs 
flre " longest of all the plumage, so that a Grebe 
may be full- winged and downy-headed at the 
same time, a very rare case among birds, though a 
similar one is found among the young of the Cranes. 
So far as is known, this retarded fledging, like the 
precocious fledging, runs through the family wher- 



EVEN GROWTH OF FEATHERS 125 

ever It occurs ; it will be noticed that except in 
the case of the Penguin, these methods of fledging 
are only found in families which have active chicks. 

The third method of fledging is that which occurs 
in the vast majority of birds, and is what one 
would have reasonably expected in all of them ; 
that is to say, the feathers grow pretty evenly all 
over the body, and the wings develop in size like 
the legs, and grow their quills pretty nearly as 
quickly as the body-feathers, and much more so 
than the tail, which goes ahead in the case of the 
retarded fledgers of the Duck and Rail type ; our 
Pigeons, Doves, Canaries, and Budgerigars furnish 
familiar examples of this, as well as such wild birds 
as Thrushes, Sparrows, etc. 

But these are all birds with helpless young ; and 
the uniform method of fledging, being so prevalent, 
is also found among birds whose chicks are active, 
such as Plovers and Gulls. Some people, indeed, 
regard the young Gull as intermediate between the 
active and passive type of young bird ; but as it is 
able to walk about, even when quite small, and can 
pick up the food the parent vomits for it, even if 
it does not provide for itself, it can fairly claim 
to be put on the active list. 

It is, however, often hatched in a nest which 
puts pedestrian exercise out of the question, as 
when this is on a ledge of a clift", and so there is 
certainly a tendency in young Gulls to degenerate 
towards the passive type. This is so also with their 
diving relatives the Auks, but even these, clift'- 



126 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

dwellers though they are, can walk, and pick up 
fish, etc., where brought by the parents — which 
do not swallow and vomit it, but carry it in the bill 
— and in the case of the Guillemot, at any rate, go 
down to the sea when half-fledged, their fledging 
being uniform as in Gulls, though this premature 
jump into existence results in the death of many. 

The young of that most curious bird the Cariama 
{Cariama cristata) also seems to show a partially 
degenerate type. It lies quietly in the nest, which 
is built aloft, though the old birds spend most of 
the time on the ground, but yet has patterned 
down, dark brown with a cream streak down each 
side of the back and cream spots upon the brown ; 
and as such down is usually found in runners, it 
presents to the eye a queer blend of the two types 
of young ; but the young one I observed, bred at 
the Zoo, left the nest long before it could possibly 
fly, though perhaps this was premature. At any 
rate it climbed back to it when a bough was placed 
as a ladder, so the same thing may occur in nature, 
the nest being in a tree ; it did not seek for food, 
but waited till the old birds gave it, just as Moor- 
hens and Coots do when they are very young ; and 
they keep taking it from the parents at times even 
when fledged, as this young Cariama did, and thus 
show, on their part also, signs of pauper degeneracy. 

In fact, the feeble, whining squeak and imploring 
attitudes of the young of the Rail tribe contrast 
very unfavourably with the liveliness of their 
frequent companions, the ducklings ; in the case 



ENTERPRISING DUCKLINGS 127 

of the New Zealand Weka Rail, the parents, which 
are flightless ground-birds, have been seen running 
to and fro until quite weary, plying with food their 
young which they had left in a place of safety. 

Grebes, again, nursed on the parent's back and 
fed there or on the nest for a week or so, come 
very near being mere nestlings, and are very feeble 
at first, unable to do more than crawl, and un- 
willing to swim ; and the Swans' cygnets are not 
nearly so active on land as goslings and ducklings, 
though downy and swimming well enough ; and 
as their parents carry them on their backs, at any 
rate at times, and do something to feed them — the 
Mute Swan, as is well known, pulling up weeds for 
them, while the Black Swan, as I have seen, will 
pull them grass from the bank — these young also 
seem to approach nearer the nest-fostered type 
than the active majority of the family. 

Indeed, the young of several members of this 
group are much more active and enterprising than 
their parents ; young Mallard frequently dive for 
food like young Tufted Ducks and Pochards, even 
up to the flapper-stage, though adults very seldom 
do so, and they are also very much more active on 
land ; young Sheldrakes of three species that I have 
watched, the Common {I'adorna vulfanser), Ruddy 
{Casarca rutila), and New Zealand (C variegata)^ 
dive most freely for food during tlie first week or 
two, while I have never seen the adults of any of 
these species do this, while they readily turn tail-up 
in the usual Duck manner, although in the ordinary 



128 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

way they are more land-feeders than Ducks gener- 
ally. So are common Wigeon ; and I have seen 
their young ducklings dive for food, but, curiously 
enough, not Mandarin ducklings, though the old 
birds v^ill dive for food more readily than any other 
surface-feeding Duck — indeed, I have seen them 
do so more freely than at least two of the diving 
Ducks — the Rosy-billed {Metofiana fefosaca) and 
Red-crested Pochard {Netta rufina). 

What habits the young of the curious Magpie- 
Goose may have do not seem to have been recorded ; 
it would be interesting to know if they fledge late 
like the rest of the family. 

Flamingoes, by the way, show a distinct difference 
from the Ducks in this respect ; they fledge early 
and gradually, the wing quills developing in good 
time, just like the young of Storks and Ibises, to 
which, as I said above, they appear really to be 
allied. Their young are fed with disgorged food 
from the beak, at any rate at first, just as in these 
members of wading groups. 

Quite the most curious instance of parental aid 
given to active young birds is that of the Wood- 
cock, which carries its young from the dry wood 
in which they are hatched to the moist feeding- 
grounds, gripping them between the legs, which 
are in this bird very short for a wader, not longer, 
in fact, than a Partridge's. Even when the young 
are so far advanced towards maturity as to be bigger 
than a Snipe, the habit is kept up. 

Another instance of active young being carried 



RESISTANCE TO INJURY 129 

in the parent's feet is that of the young of a very 
common Eastern water-fowl, the Small Whistling 
Tree-Duck {Dendrocycna javanica), which commonly 
breeds in trees, and has been seen to bring the 
young ducklings down in that way. The tree- 
breeding habit occurs frequently in Ducks, espe- 
cially in tropical climates, and our Wild Duck 
frequently breeds in pollard willows or on decayed 
stumps, but the young in such cases generally 
jump down and take their chance, though 
M. Rogeron records one case in which he saw the 
old bird carry down the young in her bill, as the 
American Wood-Duck or Carolina Duck (JEx 
sponsa) is said to do. 

I have heard, however, of a case in which 
the nearly related Mandarin Duck, breeding 
at large on an English estate, nested in a hole 
about fifty feet above a hard carriage drive, and 
the young simply jumped down and sprinted off 
for the water ; of course young Ducks are very 
light, and thickly padded with stiff down, and so 
can take risks of the kind better than might be 
supposed. But the power of resistance of even adult 
birds of such a kind to a fall must be great ; I have 
known an adult Carolina Duck escape from the 
former zoological sale-collection on the terrace at 
Covent Garden and fall (being pinioned) on the 
hard stones beneath, and yet not be injured. 

A curious instance of a young bird of the active 
type in appearance being nevertheless a nestling 
in habits is that of the young of the South American 
9 



130 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

Sun-Bittern {Euryfyga helias) which bred in the 
London Zoo at the zenith of that institution, when 
it was under the Sclater and Bartlett management, 
and really excellent results were got there. This 
bird is described as being like a young Woodcock 
or Snipe in appearance, with variegated down, and 
it did not gape or cry like young birds generally, 
but when the parents flew on to the nest, which 
was at the top of a pole, with a small fish or other 
food in their bills, it snapped or pecked the morsel 
from them and devoured it. 

The Sun- Bittern is not well-named, for, in spite 
of its carnivorous and wading habits, it is not at 
all like a Bittern, and forms a family of its own, 
related to the Rails ; evidently it is a bird whose 
young are degenerating into the nestling type. 

Within this type are to be found, as will be in- 
ferred from what has been said, varying degrees of 
degeneracy ; young birds of prey, for instance, can 
seize with their feet and tear up food before they 
are out of the down. They will even walk about 
a little, if their surroundings permit, while in this 
stage, and so will young Penguins and even Pelicans, 
though in the case of the latter there is often little 
chance, as these birds as often as not nest on trees. 
Young Nightjars are also quite able to run, and do 
so for short distances. 

Young Larks may be perhaps returning to an 
active condition, as they will ramble away from 
the nest before fledging ; Mr. W. Farren has 
amusingly described in a recent number of Wild 



NON-SLIP PADS FOR NESTLINGS 131 

Life how young Woodlarks venture away for a 
few feet from the nest when alone and undisturbed, 
and then, when frightened, shrink back to it, as 
if attached to invisible strings of elastic which 
pulled them back by contraction. This tendency 
to " reverse engines " is very marked among many 
nestlings, and is no doubt connected partly with 
the habit of backing to the edge or opening of the 
nest in order to discharge their dung, a piece of 
instinctive sanitation, and with retirement on alarm 
without turning round. 

It is particularly well marked in young King- 
fishers, which run backwards in a most comical 
way. They are provided with a pad on the hock- 
joint, on which they rest, like so many young birds, 
in repose ; but it is not nearly so well developed 
in them as in young Woodpeckers and Barbets, 
which have a very marked horny-studded heel- 
cap, and, as nestlings, do not move on their toes at 
all, but on the heels, as I was, I believe, the first 
to record, having reared the Indian Gold-backed 
Woodpecker {Brachyfternus aurantius) and two In- 
dian Barbets — the Blue-throated {Cyanofs asiatica) 
and the Crimson-breasted {Xantholcema hcema- 
toce-phala) — from the nest, and so noted not only 
the occurrence of the heel-pad (which had been 
previously observed in the Wryneck), but also its 
function. Such a pad has since been observed by 
Mr. Seth-Smith in the young of a Toucanet {Seleni- 
dera maculirostris). 

These young Barbets, by the way, had a pecu- 



132 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

liarity I never observed in any other nestlings : they 
kept their tails turned over on their backs, and 
under their closed wings ; a most admirable ar- 
rangement for the tight packing which is the lot 
of nestlings reared in holes hacked out in trees, 
as young Barbets are, but nevertheless young Wc 
peckers have not the habit, though similarly placed. 

The nestling most celebrated for its peculiarities 
is that of the Hoatzin {Opisthocomus hoazin) of the 
forests along the edge of some rivers in northern 
South America. The adult bird is not unlike a 
perching Pheasant in general form, size, and habits, 
but the young are most curious creatures, clad at 
first in a scanty down like that of a young Pigeon, 
but nevertheless born open-eyed, not blind as Pigeons 
and other naked or nearly naked nestlings are ; they 
are also able to clamber about the boughs, in which 
action not only the bill and feet are brought into 
play, but also the wings, which have claws at the 
end of the first and second digits, the first digit in 
birds being that little movable point which 
supports the set of pigmy quills known as the 
bastard- wing, which may be seen projecting at the 
pinion- joint of a Pigeon's wing when it is about to 
settle, and the second forming the tip of the 
pinion. 

These claws of course represent two of the three 
original claws found in the separate digits of the 
primaeval birds' forelimb (which were probably 
simply enclosed in a common skin like a Kingfisher's 
toes), and so it is interesting to find them still in 




YOUNG HOATZIN. 
A half-fledged specimen, showing its method of climbing with bill. wing., and feet. 
132 




BRUSH-TURKEY. 

This is one of the largest of the mound-birds, and the only one commonly seen in 

captivity. 




OVEN-BIRD. 

The Oven-bird is brown and white, about the size of a Thrush, and has the strutting gait 

of a Bantam cock. 



WING-CLAWS FOR CLIMBING 133 

use in a modern bird, if only during youth, for as 
the bird gets older and fledges, which it does in 
the usual uniform way, the claws are shed. This is 
curious, because in the Ostrich, which is ages away 
from any perching or climbing ancestor, being not 
only flightless but having lost not only the gripping 
hind toe but also the one next to it, the wing- 
claws are retained throughout life. 

The peculiarity of the young Hoatzin is not so 
unique as might appear, for the young of the 
Touracous {Musofhagidce)^ with which it used 
formerly to be classed, also pull themselves about 
their nests with their wings, as was first pointed 
out by Sir Harry Johnston, and confirmed by Mrs. 
Johnstone from observation on a specimen bred in 
her aviary. 

Young Moorhens and Porphyrios also use their 
downy wings (which have a claw on the first finger) 
in scrambling about, and young Grebes — at any 
rate young Dabchicks — can during the first week or 
so of their lives only get about in this way on 
land, or rather on the nest, which is all the land 
they know. The really most interesting point 
about the Hoatzin, then, would appear to be that 
it is apparently a link between the nestling and the 
chick types of young, having the imperfect clothing 
so common in the former and the active habits of 
the latter, though we are not told if it feeds itself 
at all. 

So distinct is the separation between the two 
types that there is only one case in which the 



134 BIRD BEHAVIOUR. 

young of one family differ in type from those of 
another nearly allied to it ; this being that of the 
young of the Sand-Grouse {Ptero elides) which are 
active runners, though with a very different type 
of down from that of young game-birds proper, it 
being more like true feathers. Yet the Sand-Grouse 
are supposed to be allied to the Pigeons, in which 
the young present the consummation of the help- 
less type, blind and pap-fed, with the down nearly 
always scanty, and sometimes even wanting, as in 
the bare black young of the Nicobar Pigeon (Calcenas 
nicobarica), which reminds one of a new-hatched 
Cormorant, Cormorants and Gannets being bare 
at first and downy later on. 

But the Plovers are also a related group, and 
these the Sand-Grouse approach in their aborted 
hind toes, in their flight and notes, and in laying 
spotted eggs on the bare ground, as much as 
they do the Pigeons in their short legs and vege- 
tarian habits. Those Pigeons also which have 
adopted a ground life and assumed a coloration 
strikingly like that of Sand-Grouse, nevertheless do 
not resemble them more than other Pigeons other- 
wise, so that possibly the Sand-Grouse are not so 
near Pigeons as some anatomists have made out. 

There is only one family of birds in which the 
young are not definitely known, and that is the 
extraordinary little group of Finfoots {Heliorni- 
thidce), of which only three species are known, all 
from warm climates, one African, one East Indian, 
and one South American. In appearance and 



INFANTILE UGLINESS 135 

habits they are a strange blend of Rail and Cor- 
morant, and all we know about their young is that 
Prince Maximilian of Wied once shot a male of the 
South American species {Heliornis fulica) carrying 
two naked young under its wings. A male Dabchick 
might have been doing this, but the queer thing 
about the Finfoot's young is that they should have 
been naked, since such young always remain in the 
nest ; further information is certainly much to be 
desired, but the Asiatic bird seems everywhere 
rare, and nobody has taken much trouble about the 
African and American species, though both have 
been kept in captivity, one of the former having even 
been brought to England by Mr. J. D. Hamlyn. 

Besides the inactivity of passive nestlings, the 
absence or very slight development of down in 
many of them is very striking, and their extremely 
repulsive appearance when thus clad, or rather 
unclad, makes it easier to understand the descent 
of birds from such an unpopular class as reptiles. 
" The young at first are perfectly bare and very 
hateful," is the remark of Russ on the young of a 
little Finch, as quaintly translated by Dr. Butler 
in his book on foreign cage-birds. 

But there are gradations of this in the same 
family ; for instance, among the Passerines, the 
young Lyre-bird is well clothed with down, and 
Mr. W. Frost tells me that he finds the young of 
the pretty Thrush-like Pittas, at any rate the Aru 
Islands species, are so as well ; Canaries and Robins 
have a little down, but Sparrows and Crows none. 



136 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

Among Parrots, young Cockatiels and Keas have 
down, but Budgerigars and Ring-necked Parrakeets 
are bare. So, apparently, are all Kingfishers, 
Rollers, Woodpeckers, and Bee-eaters, but Hoopoes 
boast of '-a little bit of fluff," though Hornbills 
are naked. Nightjars are downy, and so are Owls 
and Hawks, the down of Owls being in most cases 
in two crops, the first one white, like that of most 
young Hawks, while the second one is coloured 
and often barred. Curiously enough the young of 
the Snowy Owl is black, like that of the White 
Tern (Gygis), and the goslings of the Snow-Goose 
are very sooty-looking little things — at least hybrids 
between the white and blue-grey forms are. 

Among the Geese, uniform though their life- 
habits are, all being big strong wary birds, living in 
the open, able to swim, and feeding on vegetable 
food, there is a remarkable variety of down-colour 
and pattern in the young. Some are nearly self- 
coloured, olive ranging into yellow, as in the case of 
the common Grey Goose (goslings are only all yellow 
when the offspring of a white tame Goose, just as 
all yellow ducklings are the offspring of tame Ducks), 
or into black, as in the Snow-Goose ; and some 
have a strong contrasted pattern, dark over most of 
the upper part and white below, as in the Bernicle, 
while in the highly specialized Cereofsis the goslings 
are striped light and dark. 

Generally speaking, however, patterned down — 
striped, pied, marbled, or spotted — is characteristic 
of active chicks, while the passive nestlings, when 



SELF-COLOURS AND STRIPES 137 

they have down at all, have it self-coloured, usually 
black, white, grey, or buff. There is an interesting 
exception, however, in the case of the Osprey 
among birds of prey, whose helpless young have 
variegated down, although in such birds the down 
is generally white. 

Among the birds with active young, too, there are 
conversely groups or species which have self-coloured 
down ; young Rails are black, young Cranes tawny, 
or, in the case of the splendid Stanley Crane of 
South Africa {^etrafteryx paradisea), grey, and 
cygnets grey or white. And among the Game-birds, 
which so generally have striped down, that of the 
young chicks of the desert Seesee Partridge {Ammo- 
ferdix bonhami) is plain buff ; and so is that of 
Hemprich's Gull (Larus hemprichi), which breeds 
on the scorching rocks of the Red Sea. 

Taken into consideration with the fact that the 
young of the common Fowl, which are naturally 
strongly striped, as may be seen in the young of 
such breeds as the Brown Leghorn, which are 
coloured like the original Jungle-Fowl, generally 
appear in buff, black, yellow, or grey down, the 
conclusion seems at first irresistible that in the case 
of patterned chicks the pattern is necessary for pro- 
tection, and that where security does not depend 
on coloration, it tends to disappear. Thus, the 
Cranes and Swans are strong birds and can protect 
their young and the Rails are clever skulkers and 
never go far from cover, so that the young of these 
may have lost the pattern just as nestling birds 



138 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

have, it having become unimportant. The sandy 
young of the Partridge and Gull above mentioned 
might be cited as important confirmatory evidence, 
their exceptional plain colouring being in this case 
just what was wanted for protection. 

It is also well known that the chicks of most 
ground-birds instinctively crouch when alarmed, 
after the fashion of most assimilatively coloured 
creatures. But on the other hand there are several 
cases in which birds of similar habitats have widely 
different down-coloration, and the reverse ; some 
have been mentioned in the case of the Geese, 
and among the Ducks we find that the young of 
the Tufted Duck and Pochard, very similar in 
habits and diving power, and breeding on the same 
waters, are very different in the down, the young 
Pochards being patterned, very like the young of 
the surface-feeding Mallard, and the young Tufted 
nearly all black. Conversely, the ducklings of 
Mallard and Muscovy Ducks are both patterned in 
black and yellow, and yet the former never breeds 
in the tropics in a wild state and the latter is 
essentially a bird of the hot zone of America, so 
that their environments must differ much more 
than those of the Pochard and Tufted Duck. 

Emus are more strongly striped in the down than 
any other young birds except Grebes, and one could 
hardly have birds more widely separated in habits, 
Emus being almost the biggest of land runners, and 
Grebes the most aquatic of all birds, and of 
moderate or even small size. 



FUR-LIKE BABY-CLOTHES 139 

In any case, it will be noticed that the down of 
young birds resembles the fur of beasts in colour- 
ing, just as it does in texture, though the latter 
resemblance is of course superficial, down being 
merely a specialized form of feathers. No adult 
birds are longitudinally striped to the extent that 
chicks often are, but such a marking is not uncom- 
mon in beasts, such as the striped squirrels of 
Asia and America, and the striped mice of Africa, 
to say nothing of the striped young of most of the 
wild pigs. The marbling of certain chicks, and 
the spotting of others, may be compared with the 
varied coats of cats and civets, and, most interesting 
of all, it will be seen that chicks exhibit no colour 
which is not found in mammalian fur, however 
brilliant their feathers may be when they grow up. 
Black, white, and grey, chestnut, brown, and buff, 
are almost all their tints, and the only bright one 
they show, yellow, is just that which is permitted 
to beasts ; visitors to the Zoo will recall the yellow 
beard of the Mandrill and the yellow whiskers of the 
Moustache Monkey (Cercopithecus cephus), to say 
nothing of the self-yellow coat of the Lion Mar- 
moset (Midas rosalia) which surpasses that of any 
duckling. Several weasels also boast of yellow 
throats and breasts, and squirrels almost rival the 
gayest monkeys in brilliancy of tint. 

Moreover, young birds, like mammals, may dis- 
play other bright colours if these are limited to the 
skin, or at any rate to featherless parts. The red 
on the head of young Coots and Grebes may be 



140 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

compared to that on the Mandrill's Bardolphian 
nose, and the young of the Indian Paddy-bird 
{Ardeola grayi)^ a very near relative of the Squacco 
Heron of our British list, display among their tufts 
of long hairy-looking down a skin of as lively a 
green as any monkey can show in uncovered portions. 

It may happen that young birds are far prettier 
than their parents, as in the case of the charmingly 
striped and red-capped young Grebes ; in this case 
they remind one of reptiles, in which the young are 
generally very much more beautifully and distinctly 
marked than the old, a contrast which is especially 
marked in the case of crocodiles and tortoises, which 
are quite handsome when young, though so parti- 
cularly dull when adult ; and every naturalist must 
have noticed the pretty silver-and-black young of 
the plain-coloured slow- worm {Anguis fragilis), and 
the rich sharp tints of young snakes. 

According to their reptilian descent, young birds 
must at first have been active and variegated, and 
tended to degenerate into uniform down or even 
nakedness, as they departed further from the 
ancestral type. The flying, independent young of 
the Mound-builders, hatched as they are without 
incubation, ought to be primitive, but they are 
said to have a suit of down which they cast in the 
shell, and at any rate they are not striped, a fact 
which militates against the utility of striping for 
protection, since they particularly ought to need 
it, not having any parental care exercised on their 
behalf, but shifting for themselves from the first 



THE REAL BIRD'S-EYE VIEW 141 

like young reptiles. Also, if striping is so protective, 
why are striped small animals, although not absolute 
rarities, so infinitely in a minority compared to the 
plain brown ones ? And why are the pestiferous 
skunks and zorillas, armed with their fetid secre- 
tions, striped like the young Emus and the Cereopsis 
goslings ? 

The fact is, we shall not know anything certain 
about the meaning of colouring in relation to pro- 
tection until our airmen have a chance to take to 
animal observation, and give us the real bird's-eye 
view, since some of the worst enemies of all small 
life must be the birds of prey, which are common 
in all countries where man has not killed them off 
to protect his poultry. Beasts and reptiles, of 
course, do their share of destruction, but the 
former mostly hunt by scent, and the latter depend 
much on seeing their prey move, when no colour 
is of any use. 

Although they present such great diversity in the 
habits and care of their young, as opposed to 
reptiles in which these are always active and inde- 
pendent, birds, as every one knows, are as uniform 
in their production of young as in their possession 
of plumage, since they all lay eggs, and eggs with a 
hard shell at that, unlike the parchment-coated eggs 
of most reptiles. But they greatly differ from 
reptiles in the great diversity of the colour of these 
eggs, which is of course the reason for the great 
popularity of birds'- egg-collecting. 

Nevertheless, many groups have kept up the 



142 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

reptilian custom of laying plain white eggs — or at 
all events very faintly tinted ones. Penguins, 
Grebes, Pigeons, Owls, Woodpeckers, Barbets, Tou- 
cans, Bee- eaters. Rollers, Swifts, Hornbills, King- 
fishers, and Humming-birds all lay white eggs, 
and although most of these lay their eggs in holes, 
a great number do not, notably all the Humming- 
birds and nearly all the Pigeons, our common 
Blue-rock and the Stock-Dove being quite excep- 
tional in the family in their habit of breeding under 
cover. The eggs of the Duck tribe also are always 
light-coloured and unspotted if not actually white, 
though in this case it must be admitted that the 
birds always cover them when leaving the nest, as 
do some of the Game-birds, like the Partridge. 
On the whole it would seem that birds which lay 
white eggs simply do so because they are physically 
incapable of laying eggs of any other colour. 

With regard to the numerous spotted eggs, it 
may be freely admitted that when laid on the bare 
ground, as by Plovers, they are often really hard 
to find, and that here protective resemblance 
probably does come into play ; but in the case of 
the often bright-coloured and beautifully- variegated 
eggs of passerine birds, generally deposited in open 
nests in trees and bushes, the colour does not seem 
to be of any great importance, the great point 
being that the nest should be concealed. If such 
eggs were coloured to assimilate to the foliage, we 
might expect some green ones, but in practice 
there are no truly leaf-green eggs except those of 



GEMS IN PLAIN CASKETS 143 

the Cassowaries, which are just like big unripe 
plums, and are of course laid on the ground. And 
as a matter of fact, eggs of any sort are practically 
never of a pure colour, either in ground or markings ; 
blue-greens, green-blues, brown-reds, and yellow- 
buffs are the usual tints, but no egg is azure-blue, 
scarlet-red, or gamboge-yellow, or even magenta 
or violet. 

The most richly coloured eggs are those of the 
Tinamous {Tinamidce)^ which have a glaze like 
china and are self-coloured, exhibiting such tints 
as sea-green and plum-purple, though they soon 
fade when blown. The Tinamous themselves are 
one of the plainest-coloured families of birds in 
existence, not one species having any bright or 
conspicuous marking, and only a few even such 
little decorations as a red bill or yellow legs ; and it 
will be noticed that taking the class of birds as a 
whole, a beautiful bird never lays a beautiful tgg, 
and vice versa, " The music of the moon sleeps 
in the plain eggs of the nightingale," says the poet, 
and the glories of the Peacock's rainbow train and 
the Golden Pheasant's glowing crest and blood-red 
breast are packed into eggs of a simple cream- 
colour, while in the same family the sombre Grouse 
and Quail lay quite richly mottled eggs. 

One of the most curious coincidences among 
birds is to be found in the markings of the eggs 
of many birds of prey, which are just like dried 
blood, foreshadowing the little murderers which 
will break through their shells ; a believer in ma- 



144 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

ternal impressions would tell us that this is just 
what one might expect, but the white eggs of the 
equally sanguinary Owls would confute him. 

But the existence of such meaningless coincidences 
should make us careful in assigning a survival value 
to every modification of form and colour in either 
bird or egg ; the subcorneal shape of the Guille- 
mot's egg, for instance, certainly renders it less 
likely to roll off the ledge on which it is laid, but 
then one parent bird or the other is always on it, 
and the peg-top shape of the eggs of Plovers and 
shore-birds, although it facilitates packing in the 
cross-shaped arrangement, points all inwards, which 
the sitting bird affects for them, may be merely 
incidental and not specially evolved. 

Sometimes there seems to be no reason whatever 
for the peculiarities of an egg ; why, for instance, 
should the curious Pink-headed Duck of India 
(Rhodonessa caryofhyllacea) lay, in an ordinary Duck- 
nest, eggs which in colour, gloss, and roundness 
remind one of a set of billiard-balls ? Then as to 
markings and tint, no reason has been given why 
the Guillemot should lay eggs so extraordinarily 
variable in these respects, or why birds which lay 
coloured or variegated eggs should, generally speak- 
ing, exhibit so much difference in their output, 
as compared with the uniformity of their plumage. 

Broadly speaking, one may expect in any species 
laying a variegated egg specimens lightly and 
heavily spotted, and others with fairly evenly 
distributed markings contrasting with some in 



AN ORIGINAL GUILLEMOT 145 

which the colouring tends to concentrate in a 
belt or cap, almost invariably at the large end — 
phenomena which are well exhibited in the common 
Sparrow, No other bird is anything like so variable 
in its egg-coloration as the Guillemots, but some 
are very far from being even ordinarily true, to 
type, as the Red-backed Shrike with its olive and 
red types, some Indian Warblers with their blues and 
reds, and some of the African Weavers with their 
self-blues, spotted blues, and whites. 

Individual birds, however, tend to reproduce the 
same type of Qgg ; there is an historical instance of 
a Guillemot which laid on a particular rock-shelf an 
egg of the rare and valuable red variety which was 
duly taken for fifteen years on end — though of 
course this might have been the produce of another 
bird with the same peculiarity. Yet on the other 
hand, all the eggs in a laying may not match ; the 
Tree-Sparrow is notorious for having one differently 
marked egg in every set, and the Golden Eagle 
commonly lays one variegated egg and one plain 
one. It is said, also, that in the case of birds which 
lay richly coloured eggs, the coloration varies as 
the bird advances in years, which is, after all, rather 
what one might expect. 

The colour is in any case laid on almost like 
paint, and will smear if the egg be washed when 
new-laid ; while in the case of the eggs of many 
groups — Shore-birds (Charadriido'), Gulls, Rails, 
and song-birds especially — it will be noted that 
there are often two sets of spots, one of which 
10 



146 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

has been laid on before the shell is complete and 
so lies deeper and looks fainter, such under-surface 
spots being grey, lilac, or mauve in colour. 

In the eggs of Cormorants and their kin {Sugano- 
podes), Grebes, and some of the non-parasitic 
American Cuckoos (Cratofhaga, Guira) there is a 
chalky layer external to the real shell, which is often 
blue, and shows here and there. In the case of the 
Cuckoo Guira, the " White Ani," the effect is 
exceedingly pretty, the rich blue shell being plenti- 
fully flecked, but not obscured, by the chalky 
secretion. Grebes' eggs, by being covered by 
the owners with some of the sodden weed of which 
the nest is made, soon get stained and are generally 
seen as buff or brown objects, though the proper 
and original colour is white ; Ducks' eggs are 
naturally greasy on the surface. The egg of the 
Fulmar is distinguishable by the nose, having the 
same strong smell as characterizes every part of its 
producer, even to one feather. 

The surface of birds' eggs generally varies a good 
deal, from a rough one like unglazed porcelain to 
the glazed type best shown in the Tinamous' eggs ; 
but Kingfishers and Owls also lay very glossy eggs, 
and Ostriches' eggs are both glossy and pitted. 
The shell gets duller and more brittle as the eggs 
are sat upon in the case of birds generally. 

The number of the sitting varies in a very inter- 
esting way ; in quite a number of birds it is at the 
minimum, the egg being single. This is the case 
with Petrels and Albatrosses, the Gannets, the 



A LOVE OF ODD NUMBERS 147 

American Vultures, the Lammergeier, the Sun- 
Bittern, the White Noddy (Gygis), the Crab-Plover 
(Dromas ardeola), and many Auks, Penguins, Hum- 
ming-birds, and Pigeons. Most Pigeons and Hum- 
ming-birds, however, lay tv^o eggs, as do some of 
the diving sea- fowl just mentioned. 

Four is the ordinary number with the shore- 
birds — Plovers, Sandpipers, and so forth — and it is 
only among these that a larger set than one or two 
is constant ; as a general rule when twins are 
exceeded, " several " is the only numerical expres- 
sion which can be used to describe the hatch. 
Birds which do not lay two or four eggs seem, 
however, often to think that there is luck in odd 
numbers, for three, five, and seven are frequent 
numbers. 

. There is a widespread tendency, as that very 
acute observer, Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker, has pointed 
out, to over-rate the number of eggs laid by the 
Game-birds and Ducks ; these are really not so 
much more prolific than the birds nursing helpless 
young in nests as is supposed, at any rate in the 
East. The wild Hen oftener lays six eggs than a 
dozen, and this will be a reasonable brood for many 
Ducks ; the Australian Musk-Duck (Biziura lohata) 
only lays three eggs. It would appear, however, 
that in Europe most birds, Passerines included, are 
more prolific than in the Tropics. 

The eggs of birds which have active young are 
credited with being bigger than those from which 
passive nestlings are excluded, as well as more 



148 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

numerous ; and certainly the largest eggs propor- 
tionately to the parent come from species with this 
habit. The Guillemot, for instance, whose young 
is as active as existence on a narrow shelf of rock 
admits, lays an enormous egg, and this is surpassed 
by the Kiwi, whose egg is so large that it is difficult 
to see where the bird's internal organs go while 
it is being carried, and the male bird, which alone 
incubates, cannot cover it properly, but has to 
lie across it. The Jack-Snipe, too, accomplishes 
something like a record in laying four eggs so big 
that they average over the inch in their widest 
diameter, while the bird is not bigger than a Lark. 

The Raven, on the other hand, is remiarkable, 
even among nestling-fosterers, for the small size of 
its eggs, which are hardly bigger than those of the 
Carrion Crow, a bird hardly more than half its 
size and of similar general habits. The Wren, true 
to its original and self-assertive character, lays a 
large sitting of relatively large eggs for its size. 
It will be noted, however, that very small birds 
do not lay the tiny eggs one might expect ; those 
of Humming-birds, for instance, though among 
them may naturally be found the smallest of all 
eggs, are not proportionately so minute as one 
might have supposed. 

There is evidently a limit to the smallness of 
eggs ; an experienced poultry-fancier told me not 
long ago that this was the obstacle which faced the 
bantam-breeder, for whenever an exceptionally 
tiny pullet was reared, she was certain to succumb 



HENS WITH ONE CHICKEN 149 

sooner or later at the attempted laying of her first 
eggy the egg not being reduced proportionately 
to the size of the hen. Something of this sort may 
have operated to prevent Humming-birds becoming 
as small as blue-bottles — the actually smallest 
species, Calypte helence of Cuba, being just about 
as big as a queen humble-bee, though I doubt if 
it is as light as Mellisuga minima^ which used, as its 
name implies, to be considered the smallest of birds. 

The Storm-Petrel, smallest of web-footed fowl, 
certainly lays a very large egg for its size, although 
the young is helpless ; it is not larger than a Swal- 
low, while its egg measures an inch in length, and 
this is not purely a matter of disproportion to 
reduced size, for Petrels generally lay a large egg. 

It is worth noticing that it is among birds which 
lay a single egg that the most sensationally numerous 
species are found ; the Passenger Pigeon of America 
{Ectofistes migratorius), so recently extinct, whose 
columns used to take hours to pass a given spot, 
was one of the Pigeons which lay but one egg. The 
Puffin is supposed by some to be the most numerous 
bird in Europe, and some of its brother Auks, like 
the Guillemot, are also inordinately numerous ; the 
extinct Great Auk was wonderfully abundant in its 
day, as is the common Gannet still for a bird of 
its size, while according to Darwin, the Fulmar 
Petrel is said to be the most numerous bird in the 
world. This is very doubtful, but he might have 
been thinking of another Petrel, the Mutton-bird 
{Puffinus brevicauda), which has been seen in enor- 



ISO BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

mous masses in the South Pacific, quite equalling 
the old-time flocks of Passenger Pigeons. 

At any rate, such facts as these look as if one- 
egg-laying were a good habit for survival ; but at 
the same time we must remember that the birds 
above quoted are conspicuous for living or at any 
rate breeding, in masses, thus giving a false impres- 
sion of their numbers as compared to more scattered 
species ; that most of them draw their living from 
the hospitable storehouse of the sea, and that two 
of them did not stand long against human destruc- 
tiveness at any rate, and might not have withstood 
the invasion of any other carnivore. 

Moreover, some of the single- egg-layers are 
scarce birds ; the Condor and Lammergeier are 
not nearly so common as the smaller Vultures — I 
only saw two of the latter during all my residence 
in India ; and the large Hornbills, which lay only 
one egg, are always rare where the smaller and more 
prolific kinds are common. There may be in some 
cases good reason why only one egg should be laid, 
as will appear in the consideration of some curious 
incubation and nursing habits, but it is a quite 
possible consideration that birds which lay only one 
egg are on the decline as species through infertility, 
since one egg 2l year — and sometimes even one in 
two years, as is said to be the case vvdth some of the 
great Vultures — is a perilously low output, and the 
sea-birds are liable to numerous accidents. 

And as to actual numbers, it is highly probable 
that such birds as the Quail and Skylark, which are 



FERTILITY IN CAPTIVITY 151 

common almost all across the Old World, are really 
more abundant than any bird which ever nested 
in close-packed colonies and flew in cloud-like 
flocks. 

The fertility of birds laying several eggs appears 
to increase with age ; the Swan, for instance, lays 
twice as many eggs when mature as she usually does 
when starting laying in her second year. It is true 
that domestic Hens decline in fertility in a year or 
two ; but then they are expected to lay in one 
year twenty times as many as their wild ancestress 
does. Tame Ducks are more fertile ; with an 
equally exaggerated egg-production, they lay a 
paying amount of eggs — at any rate in the case of 
the prolific Indian Runner breed — for twice as many 
years as a hen. 

Yet the Muscovy Duck, the Turkey, and the 
Goose have not had their fertility increased as a 
rule above that of wild birds. These always have 
eggs in reserve ; even if the set be only one or 
two, others will replace it at least once in case of 
accident, and birds which lay several eggs will 
under artificial stimulation produce numbers at 
times as great as an inferior domestic Hen. An 
unfeeling naturalist once made a Wryneck lay forty 
eggs in a season by removing them as fast as laid, 
a piece of brutality which very probably ended in 
sterilizing its subject, as an extreme output in one 
year is likely to reduce subsequent prolificacy, as 
one would expect. In a case I heard of in which a 
hen Silver Pheasant laid seventy eggs in one season, 



152 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

I was afterwards told that she had laid none at all 
the next. 

What may be called voluntary overlaying is 
rather apt, however, to occur in captive birds ; 
the Californian Quail {Lofhortyx californicus) is 
particularly liable to it. It may even occur in 
Nature ; thus, a specimen of the Indian Nukta or 
Comb-Duck {Sarcidiornis melanonota) has been 
captured on a regular deposit of eggs, tier after 
tier, amounting to forty in number; and as she 
was very emaciated, and one of the eggs was very 
small, presumably her last, she had no doubt laid 
the lot. 

Such cases as these, and exceptional Turkey hens 
that lay a hundred eggs, show us how our high- 
laying races of Fowls and Ducks have been origin- 
ated ; they began a long time ago, since Aristotle 
speaks of every-day layers. Birds may deposit 
their batch of eggs at the rate of one tgg a day, or 
lay at intervals of two or more days ; the rule is 
not constant for the same group, since the Pigeon 
deposits her second Qgg two days after laying her 
first, and the Collared Dove lays her pair on con- 
secutive days. With hens and Turkeys, too, every- 
day or intermittent laying varies individually. 

Most birds, although keeping about the nest, do 
not begin to sit till they have got the full number ; 
the rule appears to be universal among those which 
have active young, since their broods all come off 
at once, but birds may make a mistake or get 
impatient, and go off with a partial brood, leaving 



THE FATE OF BENJAMIN 153 

tardy or insufficiently incubated hatchlings to 
perish in the shell. 

Many birds which have nestling young, however, 
evidently begin to sit at once, since nestlings of 
very different ages may be found in the same nest ; 
this is notoriously the case with some Owls — such 
as the Barn-Owl — and Hawks, and it is noticeable 
with Budgerigars, at any rate in captivity. In 
such a case, the youngest member of the brood may 
be callow and blind, while the eldest is feathered 
and almost ready tp fly ; and in such cases it is 
curious that the youngest can survive at all, espe- 
cially in the case of birds of prey, where it must 
offer considerable temptation to the appetites of its 
nest-fellows. 

Indeed, a case has been recorded (" Notes on 
Cage-birds," ed. Greene, 2nd series) in which a 
brood of young Barn-Owls when shut up in a room 
with a supply of meat nevertheless killed and ate 
the Benjamin of the family, and a brood of Canaries 
I reared myself all hatched out on different days, 
the five eggs having been laid, as usual with such 
birds, consecutively, with the result that the 
youngest, which was a little overdue and helped 
out by me with a pin, was fatally crushed, with the 
next youngest, by the other three. To avoid such 
occurrences, it is the custom of many canary- 
fanciers to take away the eggs as fast as they are 
laid, replacing them with a nest-egg, and putting 
them back when the complement is complete ; but 
this is not always done, and the wild small birds 



154 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

generally get on successfully with their broods, no 
doubt not being tempted to sit so closely as Canaries, 
owing to the need of seeking food for themselves. 

I noticed with the Dabchicks which bred on the 
Indian Museum pond that they seemed to attach 
no value whatever to their eggs till they had the 
full set ; the first laid were allowed to lie, con- 
spicuous as they were by their whiteness, uncovered 
in the nest, which was only among the low-growing 
kalmi or water- convolvulus or among thin reeds. 
I can only conclude that the eggs escaped the 
attention of the numerous House-Crows simply by 
the dread these worthies had of risking their pre- 
cious persons in the attempt to pick up an object 
lying practically on the surface of the water, for I 
found they did not dare to pick up bread thrown 
into the pond, although the same species of Crow 
down by the Hooghly picked food from the water 
as a matter of course. 

When the Dabchicks began incubating, however, 
they were careful enough, and always covered the 
eggs before leaving them, after the usual manner of 
Grebes ; curiously enough, however, though they 
kept the nest piled up while they were brooding 
the young on it, they did not raise it when they had 
eggs and these were menaced by a flood, and lost 
two sittings in this way in consequence. Under 
similar circumstances a Swan, as is well known, 
will raise her nest, but then she is always ready to 
do this, if material is within reach of her bill. 

I noticed that with these Dabchicks incubation 



KEEPING THE EGGS COOL 155 

was ver^ largely left to the sun, or to the heat 
generated hy the decaying weed in which the eggs 
lay, for they were often both off the nest at all 
and any times of the day ; and this habit of hatch- 
ing otherwise than by constant incubation has 
been often noticed. The Black-back Courser 
{Pluvianus agyptius) of the African river-banks 
buries its eggs in the sand and damps them to 
prevent them getting too hot ; Sand-Grouse on the 
plains of India have been found sitting on the eggs 
not to warm them but to keep them cool, since 
under the blazing sun they actually began to cook 
if the birds were scared off for a little time ; and 
the Ostrich has quite a reputation for letting the 
sun hatch its eggs, though this only happens in the 
more tropical part of its range — in South Africa it 
sits like any other bird. 

Ordinary passerine birds may even in exceptional 
circumstances make use of the sun as an incubating 
agent ; in Hume's '' Nests and Eggs of Indian 
Birds " there is a record of a pair of House-Mynahs 
{Acridotheres tristis) which built in a hole under the 
edge of a roof fully exposed to the Indian hot- 
weather sun, with the result that both of the pair 
were always to be seen off the nest, the cock singing 
vociferously and thrashing casual Crows after the 
usual manner of his kind. 

There is a whole family of birds, allied to the 
Game-birds, which carry matters further, and never 
sit on their eggs under any circumstances, these 
being the Megapodes or Mound- builders, referred 



iS6 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

to above as producing young which are able to 
shift for themselves as soon as hatched. Ov^ing to 
one of the largest of them, the Australian Brush- 
Turkey {Cathe turns lath ami) ^ being frequently im- 
ported, their habits in at least one case are fairly 
w^ell knov^n, and have besides been studied in their 
native haunts in the case of several other species. 
Generally speaking, they live in Australia and 
New Guinea, but one, the Maleo {Megacefhalon 
maleo), is found in Celebes, and the birds of the 
typical genus Megapodius, which are more like large 
dull Partridges than anything else, are widely spread 
from the Nicobars to well out in the Pacific Islands 
— Ninafou and Samoa. All lay very large eggs for 
their size, so that here at any rate large size of egg 
corresponds with high development of the young 
when hatched, and make up their natural incubators 
v^dth their powerful feet, in which the hind toe is 
well developed and low set, although they do not 
perch more than the typical Game-birds. 

Their claws are often very long and strong, and 
they present the peculiarity, only found elsewhere 
among birds in the Cuckoos, of having the second 
and third toes, i.e. the inner and middle front ones, 
joined by a short web at the base, whereas this 
web, where it exists in other birds, is either between 
the outer and middle toes — third and fourth — as in 
the Herons, or connects all the toes, as in typical 
Game-birds. I mention this point because it is 
commonly supposed that small points not obviously 
connected with habits, and hence of value in classi- 



NATURAL INCUBATORS 157 

fication, are only to be discovered in bird anatomy, 
whereas they occur externally also. 

The Mound-birds always lay several eggs, and 
always bury them ; but their procedure in this 
respect varies : the Maleo simply inters them in 
beaches of black volcanic sand, and is supposed to 
deposit them in the hatching-holes at intervals of 
a fortnight. The Brush-Turkey hens, however, 
lay every two days, and the species of this family 
generally scratch up mounds of earth, sand, and 
dead vegetable matter, that of the Brush-Turkey 
having a circumference of three dozen yards, with 
a height of a little over two feet. 

In this species, as observed in captivity at all events, 
the male does all the work of preparing the mound 
and looking after the eggs, when laid and buried, 
driving the hen or hens off as soon as they have 
laid, and then covering them deeply or thinly as 
occasion seems to demand. As many as twelve to 
fifteen eggs may be laid by one of these birds, but 
sometimes several pairs may share a mound, though 
this seems not to be the case with the typical 
Megapodii, which also use more sand and less 
vegetable matter than the Brush-Turkey. The 
latter bird breeds in the preserves of the Duke of 
Bedford, and did so in the Zoo in a quite small 
enclosure during the Bartlett period, and of late 
years when Mr. Bertling was head-keeper. 

When hatched, the young scratch their way out 
or are dug out by the old birds ; and not only are 
they hardy when hatched, but their development 



IS 8 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

in the egg appears to be able to proceed in some 
cases without any extraneous heat, such as is cer- 
tainly generated in the Brush-Turkey's mound by 
the decaying vegetable matter. More than a 
dozen years ago, some eggs of the Nicobar Megapode 
were taken from a mound in the islands and put 
on board the Government ship Elfhinstone, Here 
they were allowed to lie about on deck in a bucket, 
and when the ship got up to the British settlement 
in the Andamans they were put away in a cup- 
board ; nevertheless some chicks at all events 
hatched out and were reared, and I saw these at the 
Calcutta Zoo, where they were sent when full 
grown. It would appear, however, that the tem- 
perature in these Megapodes' mounds is not high, 
the part where the eggs are buried being if anything 
cool to the touch. 

The Mound-birds are a group with a long incu- 
bation-period, the Brush-Turkey, a bird of the 
common Fowl's size, taking six weeks ; the incuba- 
tion-period of birds being a group-character or 
minor habit, differing in length according to the 
family to which the bird belongs, but, in the case 
of birds of the same family, being generally in 
proportion to the size of the species, large birds 
generally taking a longer time than small ones. 

Thus, among our familiar tame birds, the Fowl, 
as most people know, takes three weeks, the Turkey 
and Peacock a month ; the common Duck takes a 
month, the large Muscovy Duck five weeks, the 
Goose four, the Swan six. Both the Duck and 



SIZE AND SITTING-TIME 159 

Fowl belong to long-period families ; among the 
short-period birds we have in domestication, the 
Pigeon takes seventeen and the Collared Dove 
fifteen days, and the Canary a fortnight, both 
Pigeons and Passerines having short incubation 
periods. 

Owing to this family limitation of periods, we get 
some very curious contrasts ; such big birds as the 
Crowned Pigeon {Goura coronata) and the Raven 
only taking three weeks, while the tiny Painted 
Quail {Excalfactoria sinensis)^ no bigger than a 
Sparrow, and the Teal, not larger than a Pigeon, 
take as long, and the Storm-Petrel even five weeks, 
in spite of its small size. 

It will be seen that however small the bird, the 
reduction of its incubation-period does not keep 
pace with the size ; nor does the increase in the 
case of large species. Some of the smallest Finches 
only sit for eleven days, and even the Humming-birds 
are only credited with a day less ; the longest incuba- 
tion period is that of the Emu, in which the devoted 
male sits for nine weeks, longer than the Ostrich, 
with its six or seven, but this bird belongs to a 
distinct family, all the clans of flightless giants being 
very well differentiated anatomically, and evidently 
representing independent degenerations from flying 
ancestors, though of an early type. 

In a few cases the smaller bird in the same family 
may take a longer time than a larger ; thus Part- 
ridges and Gold Pheasants take longer to hatch than 
Fowl chicks. The case of the common Pheasant, 



i6o BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

which also takes longer, need not be mentioned, 
because the wild fowl is not so large as this bird, 
and curiously enough increase of size in domestica- 
tion, however great, does not seem to affect the 
incubation period to any noticeable extent. 

There does not seem to be any general correlation 
between the activity of the chick and the period of 
incubation ; the young of the Hemipodes or Button- 
Quails, birds about the size of Quails proper, hatch 
in only twelve days, although downy and active, 
while the helpless nestlings of the Budgerigar, an even 
smaller bird, take nearly three weeks. Parrots being 
a long-period group ; and the nestlings of birds of 
prey require a long time to hatch, the largest, the 
Condor, even requiring six weeks. On the whole 
there is a tendency for water-fowl to take a longer 
time than land-birds, no aquatic groups having a 
really short period, though none take so long as 
some of the great runners. The period of incuba- 
tion does not vary more than a day or two unless 
over a month, when the variation may be a matter 
of several days, as in the case of the Swan and 
Ostrich. 

As the temperatures of different groups vary, 
incubation may be hastened artificially in some 
cases ; when Mandarin Ducks were first bred at 
the Zoo, now nearly seventy years ago, it was 
noticed that those of their eggs which were put 
under hens hatched two days earlier than those 
which the Ducks themselves were allowed to sit 
upon. M. Rogeron, in discussing Hens as foster- 



TESTING THE TIME-LIMIT i6i 

parents for these and other fancy ducklings, con- 
demns some Hens as altogether too hot, so that 
the eggs entrusted to them come out so much too 
soon that the young are weakly and unsettled, and 
die off through sheer inability to live. 

The frequency with which eggs of birds have 
been placed in domestic conditions under other 
individuals or species has brought out conspicuously 
the great difference in patience in sitting birds ; 
Hens and Turkeys will often sit out two periods 
if compelled or even allowed, while Pigeons refuse 
to incubate more than a day or two over their 
limit, and I do not remember any case of water- 
fowl exceeding their time. However, the Hooded 
Crow, although one would have thought this 
cunning bird not easily duped, will, according to 
Graham in his " Birds of lona and Mull," sit so 
far over her time when her eggs have been removed, 
boiled, and replaced by boys, that she is easily 
captured through the weakness and exhaustion 
caused by this unnaturally protracted incubation. 

Evidently the Crows are not immune from the 
extreme mental upset which occurs during the 
incubation period ; poultry-keepers well know that 
the most effectual cure for a broody Hen is to 
place her in a coop with barred floor and supported 
on legs, for some Hens will sit almost indefinitely, 
not only on any object they can imagine to be an 
egg, but even on an empty nest. By making the 
bird continually perch, however, the delusion 
becomes impossible of maintenance, especially if 
II 



i62 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

her mind is distracted hy seeing the other Fowls 
enjoying life outside her prison. 

The domestic Hen is not alone in being able to 
solace her mind with a substitute for an Qgg ; 
Hume in his " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds " 
gives an amusing account of a Kite which sat upon 
a pill-box until rain wrecked this treasure ; and 
a pair of Cranes nesting in captivity^ but unable to 
produce eggs, fished up a couple of pieces of brick 
from the bottom of their pond and made believe 
they were eggs. Facts like these are of importance 
when we consider the ease with which birds, even 
of intelligent kinds, may be duped into caring for 
eggs of parasitic species. 

There is, as a matter of fact, a physical as well as 
mental change in a sitting bird ; the abdomen 
becomes inflamed and bare, constituting the " hatch- 
ing spot," and no doubt it is irritation here, not a 
self-sacrificing feeling, which makes Ducks pull off 
the down of their breasts which they then use as a 
nest-lining. In the hole-building species indeed 
this practically constitutes all the nest, but in 
tropical Ducks, although these often, in fact per- 
haps usually, breed in holes of trees, this lining is 
scanty, and may be wanting altogether. 

The commercial importance of the female Eider's 
^ down — ^the drake contributes none, apparently even 
in an emergency — is well known, but a physio- 
logical fact about this bird which is less familiar 
is its power of enduring a fast while sitting, at any 
rate in captivity, Mr. St. Quintin, one of the few 



SUPPRESSION OF SCENT 163 

people who have bred the species, recording that a 
bird of his seemed never to leave the nest during 
the whole time of sitting, so that chickweed growing 
around grew all over its back. 

In any case birds need little food while sitting, ^ 
and their excreta are concentrated in a remarkable 
way ; any one who keeps Fowls or Pigeons has 
noticed that when a sitting hen leaves the nest 
she voids a large mass all at once, and the scent 
appears herein to be concentrated, thus explaining 
the fact that the body-scent of a sitting game- 
bird, so perceptible at other times to the nose of a 
questing beast of prey, becomes suppressed, being 
as it were driven inwards. 

In spite of the wearisome nature of the task as 
it appears to Ub, It is evident that birds must 
experience great satisfaction in the action of 
incubation, as also in the more toilsome but 
seemingly more interesting process of rearing the 
young, since they are so irresistibly impelled to it 
that in many cases it is repeated several times 
during the year ; in fact, some tame birds, such as 
fancy Pigeons, Canaries, and Budgerigars, would 
endanger their health and produce weakly offspring 
by continually breeding — in the case of the last 
even in out- door aviaries in mid- winter — if their 
owners did not by removing nesting faciHties, or 
even by separating the sexes, put a stop to propaga- 
tion after a reasonable number of broods had been 
raised. 

Birds which have active young are less philo- 



i64 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

progenitively inclined, the rearing of one brood 
satisfying as a rule both wild and domestic species 
of this character for the year, even the pampered 
park Mallard not breeding in autumn, though they 
pair ; and among the birds which have helpless 
young, or at any rate young which have to be fed, 
the least fertile, i.e. those which lay but one tgg 
at a time, are also the least apt to want to repeat 
the process. The diving rock-birds which throng 
our cliffs, for instance, depart to sea quite content 
with their single chick. 

Pigeons, however, are quite willing and anxious 
to repeat their task of rearing twins as often as 
occasion allows, that is to say, as long as they can 
get plenty of food. I have seen Wood-Pigeons in 
Regent's Park, where conditions are exceptionally 
favourable, pairing at Christmas in very cold 
weather, and in India nests of the commonest 
species of Turtle-Doves are to be found practically 
all the year round, so that these birds apparently 
are always ready to breed, except, no doubt, when 
moulting, at which time the most enthusiastic 
nesters have perforce to postpone operations. 

Ordinary passerine birds, also, frequently rear 
two or even more broods in a season, so that even 
when their sittings are individually less in number 
than those of birds with active chicks, their total 
output for the year is larger. There are also certain 
individual species which have a special bent for 
procreation, and will commence nesting on less 
provocation, if I may so express it, than any others ; 



POPULAR RECORD-BREAKERS 165 

such are the birds that are commended as " good 
breeders" by aviarists, and in wild nature in this 
country we may notice that it is the Song-Thrush 
and the Robin which generally contribute the 
*' early bird's nest " newspaper records, leaving even 
such prolific birds as the Blackbird and the Sparrow 
far behind in the race for actual priority of com- 
mencement, though these may equal the output 
before the year is over. 

Generally speaking, however, it may be said that 
wild birds nest only once a year, and some of the 
large birds of prey are said only to do so in alternate 
years. 



CHAPTER VI 

Propagation [continued) — Nest-making not purely a bird-habit 
— Eggs laid without nests — Types of nests — Parasitic nesting 
— ^Parasitic layers, like Cuckoos and Cow-birds — Degrees of 
development of parasitic instinct. 

Birds are not alone in incubating their eggs any 
more than in laying eggs at all ; for pythons among 
snakes incubate their eggs, coiling round them 
and undergoing a rise of temperature, while the 
Echidna of Australia, one of the only two egg-laying 
mammalian types — the other oviparous beast being 
the Duck-billed Platypus — carries her single egg in 
a temporarily formed pouch. The two eggs of the 
Platypus are laid in her burrow. 

Neither is nest-making confined to birds, for, 
putting aside the extraordinary structure made by 
many insects, we have nest-makers among the 
vertebrates in the persons of many fish— including 
our little stickleback — in some tropical frogs, and 
in numerous beasts from the gorilla to the harvest- 
mouse. These points are worth mentioning, be- 
cause some naturalists theorize about birds' nests 
as if nest-making were a special bird habit, whereas 
for all we know the particular reptile which pre- 
ceded the first definite bird may have been a nest- 
builder already. 

i66 



INCUBATION WHILE STANDING 167 

Be that as it may, many existing birds make nests 
no more elaborate than those of some reptiles ; the 
practice of the Mound-builders in burying their 
eggs is much the same as that followed by crocodiles 
and tortoises, and the African or common crocodile 
(Crocodilus niloticus) has been observed in Mada- 
gascar sleeping on her deposit of eggs, and is be- 
lieved to keep on hand to dig up the young when 
they hatch, and take them off. This is very like 
the action of the Mound-birds — and also of those 
fish which guard the nest, aerate the eggs, and pro- 
tect the young — and as the crocodiles are the 
nearest related of present-day reptiles to birds, as 
their anatomy and bird-like eggs testify, it is 
tempting to regard the Megapodes as the most 
primitive of nesters, especially considering the 
advanced state of their young on exclusion from the 
Q,gg. If, however, a previous coat of down is shed 
in the shell, they are not so primitive as they look, 
probably, but have gone back to the simple life. 

In any case, there are birds which do far less in 
the way of nesting. The two giant Penguins, the 
King {Aftenodytes fennantt) and the Emperor 
(J, forsteri), for instance, do not put their single 
egg down anywhere, but keep it pressed up against 
the skin of the abdomen, which bulges over it, and 
supported by the feet, which are kept close together, 
and so incubate standing. The bird thus cannot 
walk freely, but it can shuffle about awkwardly, and 
thus move its egg from place to place if necessary. 
The habit seems reasonable enough in the Emperor, 



1 68 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

which breeds on the Antarctic ice at mid-winter, of 
all seasons, and so needs to protect the egg and 
chick from cold before everything, but in the King, 
which does not reach the Antarctic circle at any 
time, and breeds on land, the habit seems less 
significant. 

It is curious, too, that as the great danger of the 
infant Emperor's life is the scrimmage for its pos- 
session which results when it is seen, all childless 
Emperors desiring to foster it, the only break in 
the whiteness of its down is the black skull-cap, 
making its little head conspicuous against the 
white belly of the parent, and thus proclaiming the 
possession of the treasure. The young King is quite 
different, being dark brown all over, though the 
parents are so much alike. It is easy to see why 
these birds only lay a single egg, and also why this 
is the case with the Guillemots and Razorbill, and 
with the White Noddies, which have the next 
simplest nidification, simply laying the egg on an 
unprepared surface and keeping constantly on it. 

The nesting-places of the Auks above mentioned 
are high cliff-ledges, often even sloping seawards, so 
that the egg, in spite of its sub-conical shape, 
would roll off if one or other of the birds did 
not constantly sit on it, which they do facing 
the rock, no doubt so as to minimize the chance of 
dragging the egg off with them when leaving it. 

But that of the tropical White Noddies, re- 
nowned for their spirit-like appearance and uncanny, 
tameness, is not only a point of a coral reef, but 



PHENOMENAL FORESIGHT 169 

equally or more often the branch of a tree or the 
broad leaf of a palm ; any slight depression is 
chosen if possible, but often even this is dispensed 
with. The bird covers and leaves its egg very 
gingerly, and is credited with such foresight as, when 
laying on a leaf, so to time the hatching that if the 
leaf withers and droops, by the time the slope has 
become too dangerous, the egg will have hatched. 
The chick has great powers of holding on, having 
particularly long middle claws ; the hind toe is 
also of normal size, not rudimentary as in other 
Terns, and the feet are only half-webbed. As the 
plumage is also scanty for a water-bird, and the 
bird nests inland and even eats fruit, we have here 
perhaps a primitive Gull-type. 

Other birds that simply lay their eggs on the 
spot chosen without any nest are the Nightjars 
proper, though the Owlet- Night jars lay in holes 
in trees, and the Frog-mouths, members of the 
same family as the last (Podargidce) make nests, of 
sticks in the case of the well-known Australian 
More-pork {Podargus cuviert) and of a curious pad 
of down on a branch in the case of the Eared 
Frog- mouths {Batrachostomus). 

Simple deposition of the eggs on the ground is 
unusual in birds of the type to which Nightjars 
belong, but is not uncommon among running or 
swimming birds; Divers, Sand-Grouse, Bustards, and 
many of the Game-birds, Plovers and Terns making 
either no nest at all, a mere " scrape," or a very 
meagre collection of bents, leaves, etc. The habit 



170 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

varies, for in the same ternery some nests will 
have practically no furnishing, and others be fairly 
well provided. 

Some birds, such as the Ringed Plover when 
breeding inland, and the Adelie Penguin of the 
Antarctic {P y go s cells adelice) build nests of stones, 
which in the latter case are indeed the only available 
material ; and the male Penguin " proposes " by 
offering the hen a pebble. In the case of this 
Penguin the nesting-site appears to belong to the 
hen, which arrives first and takes possession ; but 
in some cases at all events nesting-site property is 
vested in the male bird, which brings his hen to 
his chosen haunt, or arrives there first and guards 
it for her, when the two have been separated on 
migration, as male birds generally arrive first. 

The next simplest plan to laying the eggs on the 
ground is laying them in a hole therein, or in a 
rock or tree, without any nest ; this is a common 
practice, especially characteristic of Parrots, Owls, 
and some other non-passerine perching birds, such 
as Toucans and Hornbills. Holes often have to 
be cleaned out, and so this practice passes naturally 
into the widely-spread custom of the bird excavating 
its burrow itself ; in fact, the two habits are hard 
to separate, as often the same species will occupy a 
hole if it is there already, or make one for itself if 
such accommodation is wanting. 

Burrowing is found in scattered members of 
many groups, such as the Burrowing Owl {Sfeotyto 
cunicularia) of America, the Sand-Martin and some 




CONCAVE-CASgUliD 110KN15ILL. 
This Asiatic species is shown with the nesting female eharaeteristieally walled up in a 

hole in a tree. 




u 



S3 



BIRDS AS BURROWERS 171 

other Swallows, the Minera {Geositta cunicularia) , 
a South American passerine bird, some Penguins, 
and the Puffin amongst the Auks ; but it is espe- 
ciallycharacteristic of birds which sally forth for their 
prey from a perch and return to it, using their feet 
but little, such as Kingfishers, Bee-eaters, Todies, 
and Motmots, and of Petrels among the sea-birds. 
Bee-eaters are most inveterate burrowers, forming 
regular warrens and even sometimes burrowing into 
level ground as Petrels do, most bird-burrowers 
generally liking a bank for their tunnels. 

It has been said that animals which do not get 
their living by burrowing do not show any special 
adaptation for it, and the Sand-Martin is a case in 
point ; but the Kingfishers and other burrowing 
perchers, where burrowing is a family habit, are 
noteworthy for the union of their toes, forming a 
flat broad sole, which must be of some use in throw- 
ing out the sand. It is true, however, that Horn- 
bills have similar feet, although they do not burrow, 
but nest in holes in trees as said above ; but they 
are near akin to the other joined- toed families. 

Kingfishers when starting a burrow have been 
seen to dart at the bank and dislodge the earth by 
this charge, the pair relieving each other and 
repeating the action until a big enough depression 
was made to allow them to get to work with their 
feet as well. Parrots with their gnawing beaks 
and powerful short legs are better adapted for 
burrowing than any other birds, and some do thus 
nest in banks, such as the Patagonian Conure {Cyano- 



172 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

lyseus patagonus), one of the few Parrots living in 
temperate and cold climates, as a usual thing, and 
the well-known Lemon-crested and Rose-breasted 
Cockatoos occasionally. 

The strangest of burrowers is, however, the 
remarkable pied Crab-Plover (Dromas ardeold) of 
the shores of Eastern seas, for one would never expect 
a long-legged wader like this to burrow ; yet it 
does so, and lays at the end of its bow-shaped tunnel 
one large white egg, having in fact the nesting- 
habits of a Petrel. This bird is a primitive type, 
being curiously intermediate in appearance between 
a Plover and a Gull, with half-webbed feet provided 
with a well- developed hind toe, unlike the families 
to which it is most nearly related. As to what 
long-legged birds can do in the way of digging, I 
never realized this till I saw the cock Rhea making 
his " scrape," which he does in a crouching position, 
and nevertheless thus uses his powerful limbs to 
great effect. 

Among the Woodpeckers, the Ground Wood- 
pecker of the Cape (GeocolapUs olivaceus) burrows 
in banks, but, as every naturalist knows, these birds 
generally cut out their nesting-holes in trees ; this 
is all part of the day's work for the Woodpecker, 
which is a carpenter by trade, but the Barbets do it 
too, although not pecking wood otherwise, and 
curiously enough have a fancy for beginning the hole 
from the underside of the bough, so that they have 
to commence operations upside down. 

Where burrowing or tree-hole-cutting is a family 



AN ABNORMAL KINGFISHER 173 

habit, no nest is made by the bird, the eggs being 
laid on the floor of the hole ; in fact, such birds 
throw out all they find inside a hole, and the 
Starling greatly annoys and even dispossesses the 
much larger and more powerful Green Woodpecker 
by carrying nesting-stuff into his borings. When, 
however, the hole-builder, burrower or merely 
appropriator, is a member of a family whose general 
custom is to nest outside, something like the normal 
nest of the family, though often a very slovenly 
one, is made, as by the Sand-Martin, Jackdaw, 
Stock-Dove, and Sheldrake, and the many kinds 
of Tits. 

This points to the hole-building in these cases 
being a recent habit, but some members of genuine 
troglodyte families may as an abnormality build 
a nest ; Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker has found the 
Indian White-breasted Kingfisher {Halcyon smyr- 
nensis) doing so, the structure being a domed one 
of moss. There is some connection between making 
a domed nest and breeding in holes, for, as every 
one knows, the House-Sparrow, whose nest is 
naturally a domed one in a tree, readily takes to 
nesting in holes, and so do many of the small 
foreign Finches commonly imported. 

In the case of the Tree-Sparrow, the hole-building 
habit has apparently nearly superseded the tree- 
nesting one, a nest of this species anywhere but in 
a hole — of a tree in most places in Europe, or of a 
building in the Himalayas, Japan, and a few other 
places — being cited as a notable exception. This is 



174 BIRI^ BEHAVIOUR 

of interest, because the Tree-Sparrow is in some 
respects the most advanced species of the true 
Sparrows, having in both sexes a coloration which 
is mascuHne only in its nearest allies, and the 
widest distribution, for the House-Sparrow, though 
actually found in more countries, has in many cases 
been transported deliberately by man, whereas its 
rival colonizes on its own account. 

Nesting with a covering of some sort, found 
existing or constructed, overhead, is a habit of 
which birds which possess it are very tenacious, 
and however intelligent they may be in other ways, 
such birds seldom venture to nest in the open ; 
of this the Sparrow, Starling, and Sheldrake are 
conspicuous examples. Nevertheless among birds 
which make nests as opposed to burrowers, dome- 
builders are the exception, most constructed nests 
being open, either mere platforms or piles, such as 
those of the Woodpigeon and the Moorhen, or 
advancing to the state of a more or less deep cup, 
such as is built by most passerine birds. 

Such nests with elevated sides or domed roofs 
may be built by a process of felting, as when made 
with moss and similar substances, or actually 
woven with a skill which is at times most admirable. 
Unfortunately we are not well off in the north 
for very skilful nest-builders, and the only woven 
nest of a British-breeding bird is that of the Golden 
Oriole, a species unfortunately too much persecuted 
to have other than the rarest chances of exhibiting 
its skill ; the nest is a woven hammock, suspended 



TROUPIALS AND ORIOLES 175 

in the fork of a bough, and this is the type of nest 
built by the true Orioles generally. 

The Troupials, wrongly called Orioles in America, 
from their frequently similar yellow- and- black 
coloration and general habits, build, however, far 
more wonderful nests, though curiously enough 
these are woven also ; their constructions are long 
bags like the old-fashioned netted purses, with the 
entrance hole at the top near the point of suspension 
to the bough. Woven pendent nests, but with the 
entrance at the opposite end, are also made by 
the Weaver-birds, whose stronghold is in Africa, 
though the Baya (Ploceus bay a), one of the best 
builders, inhabits South-west Asia. The males in 
these birds also are commonly yellow and black, 
forming a curious but possibly significant correlation 
of a type of colouring elsewhere very unusual in 
birds with the supremest of skill in nest-building. 

In the nest of the Bayas proper {Ploceus baya and 
P. atrigula), which are about as perfect as any of these 
Weavers in building ability, we get first a suspension 
cord attached to the end of the thin bough or 
section of a palm-frond which bears the nest ; 
then the bulb of the nest itself, which at one side 
passes downwards into the long entrance-spout. A 
section of the interior would show that the nest- 
cup is divided from the entrance-spout by a firmly 
bound partition, which prevents the young falling 
out, and is also used by them as a perch when 
older. When the nest is about half-finished — i.e. 
all but the cup and spout, the top half being done — 



176 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

this partition, then a mere bar dividing two holes, 
like the handle of an inverted basket, forms a 
useful perch for the bird working inside, a position 
which is taken up by the hen, which passes out the 
ends of the material as they are thrust in to her by 
the cock. 

It is probably owing to the want of this feminine 
assistance that the nest is so often left unfinished 
in captivity, and that so many half-built nests are 
found in the wild colonies, the building of these 
being the amusement of the males when unoccupied. 
Many of these will also go on lengthening the 
tubular entrance after the sitting has begun ; it 
will be noticed that this is always left loose and 
unbound at the end, such apparent negligence 
being an additional safeguard against attacks by 
snakes and other enemies. Another safeguarding 
instinct noticeable in these birds is that of hanging 
the nest whenever possible over water ; it has 
been found that even the water in the bathing-pan 
in an aviary incites some Weavers at all events to 
nest directly over this. 

The Baya itself is not commonly imported com- 
pared with some of the African Weavers, far the 
commonest bird of the kind in the trade being 
the small Red-billed Weaver of Africa {Quelea 
quelea), which anybody can buy cheaply and watch 
in any bird- room or back-garden aviary. Its nest, 
however, like that of many other Weavers, cannot 
be compared with that of the Baya, as it lacks both 
the suspension rope, being merely woven in amongst 



RESOURCEFUL CRAFTSMEN 177 

twigs, and the downwardly elongated entrance- 
spout, being simply a round nest with an entrance- 
hole below. It is, however, the skill in working 
the material that is the great attraction in Weavers' 
nests, not the exact form assumed, which is not 
more wonderful than that of many other nests. 

The Bay a may at times exhibit what looks more 
like reason than instinct in getting its material ; 
cocoanut fibre or ordinary grass will do, but it has 
been found building with grass which was far too 
broad ; and in this case the bird alighted on the 
great blades, bit down to a sufficiently practical 
breadth, then went further down the blade till it 
had the right length, bit into the blade again, and 
then flew off, tearing away the strip as it went. 
As this grass also had a serrated edge, so that it 
could only be passed through one way, it is difficult 
to refuse reasoning powers to this particular colony 
of Weavers at all events. 

In the Weaver the constructive instinct is very 
much stronger in the male than in the female, but, 
though many birds share the labour of nest-building 
with their mates, the constructive instinct is com- 
monly more feminine than masculine, and some 
birds leave the construction entirely to the hen. 
The male, however, often supplies material, as 
generally with Sparrows and Pigeons, or he may 
accompany the female to and fro in her trips to 
get it, no doubt to keep watch over her safety 
while thus pre-occupied. He aWays takes some 
interest if he cares about the nest at all, which 
12 



178 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

many males, especially among the Game-birds, do 
not. The male Globose Curassow {Crax globicera)^ 
however, seems to be the chief constructor himself. 

Nests of the felted type, well exemplified by that 
of our Chaffinch in a cup form, are often built in a 
pensile and domed pattern as well as woven ones, 
especially in the tropics, where the abundance and 
variety of enemies render necessary in the case of 
all defenceless species either inaccessibility of the 
nest or its very perfect concealment. 

In India, for instance, nearly the only nests one 
ever ordinarily sees besides those of Crows, Kites, 
and other strong birds are the pensile ones of the 
Bayas. Now and then one may find the pensile 
felted nest of a Sun -bird, but this is often well 
concealed by looking like a bunch of rubbish ; 
indeed, it is made of all sorts of odds and ends — 
bits of dry leaf, masses of caterpillar '* frass," and 
so forth, matted together with spiders' webs, a 
great stand-by for birds which build these pensile 
felted nests. 

I have even seen a pair of the Amethyst-rumped 
Sun-bird (Cinnyris zeylonicd), the commonest kind 
in Calcutta, come into my verandah to carry off 
scraps of the grey fluff which is swept out of rooms, 
for use as nesting material. 

Extremely beautiful felted nests are built on 
the pensile principle by the tiny Flower-peckers 
{Dicceidcs) of the Eastern Tropics, minute birds 
haunting tree-tops. These nests are matted 
together with cobweb, and are so well made that 



FELTING AND TAILORING 179 

they can be folded up without injury ; the entrance 
is near the top, and they look more like little wash- 
leather purses than anything one could imagine a 
bird could make — in fact, with the exception of 
some mud-nests presently to be described, they are 
the most artificial-looking products of any form of 
bird industry. 

The felted erect oval nest of our Long-tailed Tit 
has been long and deservedly admired, but that of 
the Cape Tit {jEgithalus capensis) is even more 
remarkable, composed as it is completely of plant- 
down, so closely felted that it is like cloth, and 
provided with a tubular entrance, not at the 
bottom, as in Weavers' nests, but near the top. 
Stark observed the hen closed this by pinching its 
edges together when she left the nest, either to 
keep the latter warm or to keep foes out, which 
no doubt it would do, for at any rate he once saw 
the mistress of the little house herself fail to get 
in again easily. Under this vestibule is a little 
pocket, in which the cock is supposed to sleep, and 
very likely does. Tits generally sleeping in some 
hole, or at any rate not on a perch in the usual 
way. 

Besides weaving and the simpler process of felting, 
birds occasionally practise sewing, though this form 
of industry is rare. The best-known sewn nest 
is that of the little oHve-green Wren-like Warbler 
called from this habit the Tailor-bird, and one 
of the most common — and noisiest — inhabitants of 
Indian gardens. The nest itself is simply the 



i8o BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

lining of a cup made by sewing two or more leaves 
together, or the edges of one large one, and is very 
hard to find. The bill is of course the needle, and 
the thread is the raw silk of caterpillar-cocoons, 
which holds by reason of the resistance of this 
stuff to the edges of the pierced leaf, for the story 
that the bird makes a knot is a slight exaggeration, 
just like the tale of its picking up a dead leaf and 
sewing it to a live one. Such leaves may be found 
sewn together, but this is when one leaf has withered 
after being sewn. 

Several other small Warblers make sewn nests in 
India, and so do some of the large dull-coloured 
Sunbirds of the genus Arachnothera, known as 
Spider-hunters ; in this case the nest is secured to 
a broad leaf by having part of the material pushed 
through holes bored in this, but the structure is 
not nearly so perfect as the little Tailor's. 

So many birds mix the basket-work of their nest 
with mud — even the Baya putting in a few patches 
— that complete nests of primitive earthenware are 
not surprising, though some fibre is generally, if 
not always, used. Such nests are familiar to us 
in the case of the House-Martin and Swallow, the 
former being far the more perfect type. For these 
the birds simply take up the mud in mouthfuls, and 
judiciously build little at a time, lest they should 
overweight the foundations, as White long ago 
observed in his admirable chapters on these birds. 

Some Indian and Australian Swallows, such as 
the Striated Swallow (Hirundo striolata) in the 




TYPES OF PENSILE NESTS. 

I. Philippine Red Sunbird ; -. Cape Peuduliue Tit or " Kapok-vogel " ; 3. Indian 'I'aiUr- 
bird; 4. Blood-brcasted Flowcr-pcckcr. 

[Cot>yrisJit. HuicJiiiison & Co. 
180 




NEST OF CENTRAL- AMERICAN SWIFT. 

This species {Panyptila sancti-hieronymi) builds a nest not unlike that 

of a Weaver-bird in shape. 



fSV 



THE BIRDS AS POTTERS i8i 

former country, and Fairy Martin (Lagenoplastes 
artel) in the latter, make even better nests than 
the House-Martin, resembling mud jars attached 
by the base to their support, which is commonly a 
wall, these Swallows, like most of their group, 
readily availing themselves of man-made facilities. 

Three Australian birds, not apparently very 
nearly related and not at all like Swallows, the Grey 
Struthidea (Struthidea cinerea), White- winged 
Chough (Cor cor ax melanorhamphus), and Magpie- 
Lark or Pied Grallina (Grallina ficata) distinguish 
themselves by making nests in the form of mud 
bowls, so extraordinarily true that if they were 
not attached to a support they could not be dis- 
tinguished from crude human-made pottery. 

Another wonderful mud- worker is the South 
American Oven-bird, whose domed nest, seated on a 
bough or post, has a side porch which renders 
\nvasion of the nesting chamber almost impossible. 
This is a very heavy nest, takes months to make, 
and lasts for years. The bird is a homely one, and 
a popular favourite, being called, like our Redbreast, 
by a Christian name, in this case " Alonzo Garcia " 
or " Alonzito," and credited with not working on 
Sundays, no doubt because it takes a spell off now 
and then. A close ally of this bird, curiously 
enough, is the burrowing " Minera," which reminds 
one of the great difference of the nesting-habits 
of the House- and Sand-Martins. 

A combination of hole-building and mud-masonry 
is found in the nest of the Nuthatch, which has the 



1 82 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

entrance walled up till only sufficiently large to let 
the owner in ; and just as the Martin's nest is 
exaggerated into a bottle by some foreign Swallows, 
so the Syrian Rock-Nuthatch carries out the 
entrance-plaster into a regular cone, using resin as 
well as mud in the construction. 

Generally speaking only passerine birds are skilful 
nest-builders, nest-building, even more than song, 
being the " strong suit " of this great group ; but 
among some non-Passerines we find fairly remark- 
able nests, especially the strange secreted nests of 
the edible-nest Swiftlets {Collocalia). The isinglass- 
like secretion of which the species whose nests are 
used in commerce is made {Collocalia francica) is 
simply the solidified saliva ; the flow of this secretion 
is very copious in nesting Swifts, and many gum 
their nests together with it, but even the other 
Collocalias use extraneous materials, and so render 
the nest commercially useless. At the time of 
writing, the edible nests could even be bought in 
London. 

The handsome Eastern Crested Swifts {Dendro- 
chelidon), which differ from other Swifts in perching 
on boughs like Swallows instead of clinging to 
vertical surfaces, build a very curious little saliva- 
nest at the side of a bough, just large enough to 
hold their single egg, on which they do not actually 
sit in the nest, but perch on the bough and cover 
their treasure with the breast. Such a nest is 
naturally exceedingly hard to find. 

Another Swift, from Central America this time 



SWIFTS AND HUMMING-BIRDS 183 

(Panyptila sancti-hieronymi), builds a nest out of 
downy plant-seeds matted together with saliva, a 
sort of gum-felt fabric, in fact; but 'the curious 
thing about it is not this method of building, which, 
as will have been gathered, is normal for a Swift, 
but the shape, which is quite unlike a cup, but 
resembles a Weaver's nest, being a bulb with a 
long downwardly directed entrance-spout. There 
is, however, no suspension rope, the upper part 
being glued against the underside of a rock. 

Those fairy- like allies of the Swifts, the Humming- 
birds, are skilful nest-builders in their way, making 
felted cups of plant-down on branches or even large 
leaves ; their nests are very small even for the size 
of the birds, and seem to be much alike in type 
throughout the family. It will be noticed that the 
Crested Swifts, which are much more brightly 
coloured than other Swifts and even show orna- 
mental plumes, and also perch like Humming- 
birds, show some slight approach to this style of 
nesting, though with the nest even more reduced 
and composed of salivary material. 

Apart from Passerines, Swifts, and Humming- 
birds, there are few skilful nest-builders, the nests 
of almost all other birds being of a very ordinary 
character, generally mere platforms. The Ham- 
merkop or Tufted Umbre of Africa (Scopus umbretta), 
however, a queer primitive outlier of the Stork and 
Heron group, with the size and plumage of a 
Buzzard and a slight hook to the beak, builds a 
domed nest like an exaggerated Wren's nest, the 



1 84 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

last sort of nest one would expect such a bird to 
make ; and among the Parrots, which have been 
accused of being too clumsy to build nests at all, 
the Quaker Parrakeet {Myofsittacus monachus) of 
South America not only builds a stick nest with 
roof and porch, but goes in for tenement nesting, 
several birds building in one clump, though the 
actual rooms are separate. 

A few non-Passerines build mud nests, such as 
that extraordinary fruit- eating ally of the Nightjars, 
the South American Guacharo {Steatornis cari- 
pensis), no doubt a primitive form, as its beak is 
less specialized or degenerate than a Nightjar's, and 
not so abnormally enlarged as a Frog-mouth's. 
Among the waders, Flamingoes and the Sun- 
Bittern also build mud nests, but in all these cases 
the nest is a mere cheese-shaped hassock, as it were, 
displaying no special merit in architecture. 

It is interesting, however, ,to find that other 
birds than Passerines have so much constructive 
ability, clumsy or not; and in this connection it 
should be noted that the Broadbills, Passerines of 
a very primitive and clumsy type, build pendent 
nests nearly as good as those of Weavers. Nor can 
we say that birds of special intelligence will neces- 
sarily build an elaborate nest, for the clever Crow 
tribe, with the exception of the common Magpie 
with its domed nest of thorny branches, build nests 
of the most ordinary type for passerine birds. 

Parasitic nesting is extremely common among 
birds, especially among hole-building species which 




FLAMINGO ON ITS NEST. 

Showing the sitting position, which is rarely assumed by the Flamingo except when 

incubating. 




SWIFTLETS AND THEIR NESTS. 

These Swiftlets are the smallest of the family, not being so large as the Sand-martin 

among the Swallows. 



IN SEARCH OF LODGINGS 185 

do not bore for themselves or are anxious to avoid 
the trouble ; thus many birds avail themselves 
gladly of the nest-borings of Woodpeckers, from 
Tits to tree-breeding Ducks such as the Golden- 
eye and Carolina. Such Ducks, with Owls and 
Kestrels, are among the most inveterate of nesting 
parasites, few of these birds having much notion 
of making a nest for itself. They are often not 
particular about a hole, but will adopt an open 
nest ; thus, the Long- eared Owl gladly utilizes 
the shallow nest of a Wood- Pigeon. 

The hole-builders indeed often act on the prin- 
ciple of " any port in a storm " ; they will parasitize 
mammals as well as other birds, since the Stock- 
Dove, Tawny Owl, Sheldrake, and Puffin all 
utilize rabbit-holes in this country, and in America 
the Burrowing-Owl inhabits those of the prairie- 
marmot — the so-called prairie-dog (Cynomys lu- 
dovicianus) — in the northern part of the western 
continent, and of a much bigger rodent, the vizcacha 
(Lagostomus trichodactylus) in the southern hemi- 
sphere. 

In England the Sparrow-Hawk, generally, unlike 
the Kestrel, an independent nest-builder, has been 
found nesting on top of the drey of a Squirrel 
which was occupied at the time by the little rodent, 
which reminds one of a converse case recorded in 
Argentina, when an opossum, a great foe of birds, 
had established itself in one of the rooms of a com- 
posite nest of the Quaker Parrakeet above alluded 
to, the stout walls and overhanging eaves preventing 



1 86 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

him from clearing the colony, which included 
besides the rightful owners a tree-building Teal 
(of some species) as an additional but harmless 
parasite. 

The Sparrow, as we all know, too often evicts 
the House-Martin and takes possession, but it is 
not so familiar a fact that the Swift does the same 
thing by him ; this seems not to have been recorded 
since the days of Gilbert White, but it used to 
happen regularly under the eaves of Mr. B. Clarke's 
photographic studio at Maidstone when I was a 
boy at school there with his sons. 

In Argentina the Oven-bird's cosy nest is coveted 
by a Saffron-Finch {Sy calls felzelni) and a Tree- 
Martin (Progne tafera)^ this powerful Swallow even 
fighting the owners for its possession, and sometimes 
successfully ; and, strangest of all, the Wood- 
Sandpiper (Jotanus glareola) and some allied species 
of Sandpipers breed in old nests of other birds 
and of squirrels. 

The remarkable phenomenon of parasitism in the 
young of birds has been known in the case of the 
common European Cuckoo from classical times, and 
is quite proverbial, though even in the habits and 
procedure of this well-known bird there are many 
points yet to be made out ; but it occurs not only 
in many other Cuckoos — though only in those of 
the Old World, and not universally there — but has 
originated independently in the Cow-birds, Pas- 
serines belonging to the family of Troupials (Icte- 
ridce), which is intermediate between the Finches 



PARASITIC FAMILIES 187 

and the Starlings in form and habits, and in the 
curious little birds known as Honey-guides (Indi- 
catoridce), closely allied in their anatomy to the 
Barbets, and best known from Africa, though a few 
occur in South-east Asia and its islands. 

Among the Cuckoos, only those are parasitic 
which are essentially perchers, having short legs 
and powerful wings, and seldom coming to the 
ground ; among these the habit seems to be uni- 
versal in the Old World, from the tiny and beautiful 
Violet Cuckoo {Chry so coccyx ante thy stinus) of Malay- 
sia, to the huge Toucan-like Channel-bill (Scythrops 
novce-hollandice) of Australasia, though the American 
Cuckoos of this type do not display it. The short- 
winged, strong-legged. Magpie-like Bush-Cuckoos, 
such as the " Crow-Pheasant " of India and the 
Guira of South America, are never parasitic, though 
the latter and its black allies the Tick-birds {Croto- 
phaga) indulge in the custom of communal building 
and nestling-rearing. 

The general habits of the European Cuckoo are 
well known ; the egg, which is very small for the 
size of the bird, is usually laid on the ground and 
then taken in the bird's bill and placed in the 
foster-nest, though when this is conveniently 
situated, the Cuckoo may sit on it to lay her egg. 
The male may accompany the female to guard her 
or distract the hostility of the owners, but this is 
apparently exceptional, the general impression 
among naturalists being that Cuckoos live in a 
state of promiscuity and do not regard conjugal 



1 88 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

ties. The natives of Yarkand go further, and say- 
there are no male Cuckoos at all, the hens being 
the paramours of a Shrike (Lanius isabellinus), the 
Barred Warbler (Sylvia nisoria), or even of frogs ! 
a belief which at any rate argues that two Cuckoos 
are not often seen together. 

The egg, when incubated by the fosterer, develops 
after a proportionately short incubation period 
into a blind naked young bird which has a hollow 
in the back, facilitating the work in which it almost 
immediately engages of turning eggs or its foster- 
nest-mates out of the nest by getting under them 
and backing upwards to the edge of the nest till 
they are rolled out. When, as rarely happens, two 
Cuckoos' eggs have been deposited in the same 
nest, the '' survival of the fittest " is naturally not 
determined till after a severe contest. But this 
fury for eviction only lasts about a week, after 
which time the young Cuckoo will tolerate a bed- 
fellow. 

The foster-parents do not concern themselves 
about this fratricidal behaviour in their nursery, 
but assiduously feed their changeling and leave the 
rightful heirs to die ; nor is there anything wonder- 
ful in this behaviour, as it is the common custom 
of birds to neglect a fallen nestling and to give 
most food to that which is most strongand ravenous. 
I once had an opportunity of watching a nestful of 
Starlings which were being reared on a roof just 
under my window at Oxford ; and as far as I 
could see there was not the least attempt at fair 



AN IRRESISTIBLE BEGGAR 189 

feeding on the part of the parents. A very ravenous 
young bird appeared always to be on top of the 
rest, and to get nearly all contributions till he 
subsided and another got the opportunity of taking 
his place. The Calcutta pair of Dabchicks, how- 
ever, fed their young fairly, and I have seen a 
young bird pecked instead of fed when it clamoured 
too soon for a second helping. 

The fact that the young Cuckoo is assiduously 
fed long after it can fly is probably due to the 
insistent quality of its appeal ; birds which have 
not reared one will feed it, and on one occasion 
when a young Cuckoo was confined in a Parrot- 
cage in the inside compartment of the Western 
Aviary at the Zoo, a Black Tanager {^ achy f bonus 
melanoleucus), a South American species which 
could have had no knowledge of such a bird, never- 
theless squeezed through the bars to feed it. 

The range of foster-parents in the case of the 
common Cuckoo is wider than in any other, and 
may partly account for the wide range of the species 
itself. Cuckoos generally being quite as tropical as 
Parrots or Flumming-birds, though in view of the 
extension into North America of the non-parasitic 
Cuckoos, this is evidently not the only explanation. 
The' favourite fosterer is the Titlark or Meadow- 
Pipit, and presumably it is due to its dependence 
on this bird that the Cuckoo ranges out on to the 
moorlands, a habitat for which it, like most of the 
family, is utterly unsuited, being an awkward mover 
on the ground, though on trees it hops more actively 



190 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

than its short legs would lead one to expect. The 
Hedge- Sparrow is, however, a well-known victim 
of the Cuckoo, and is the most often spoken of, 
since as it is such a familiar bird itself, the alien 
nestling is most often seen in its easily-found nest 
in most places. 

Other well-know|i Cuckoo- rearers are the Robin, 
Pied Wagtail, and Reed- Warbler, and many other 
small birds are patronized, but chiefly the insec- 
tivorous kinds, though now and then a Finch's nest 
may be selected. Larger birds are very seldom 
Cuckoo-fosterers, probably because they can drive 
off the intruder — otherwise we should expect to find 
the Blackbird, Thrush, and Starling the commonest 
fosterers, their nests being easy to find and their 
habits in every way suitable. The Red-backed 
Shrike, however, in spite of its ferocity, is a not 
uncommon foster-parent on the Continent, though 
rarely so in this country. 

In this case, the egg of the Cuckoo seems gener- 
ally to bear a close resemblance to that of the 
Shrike, but such resemblance to the Ggg of the 
fosterer is not by any means universal. The 
Cuckoo's egg is indeed very variable, though not 
nearly so much so as that of the Guillemot ; and its 
small size relatively to that of its producer is 
paralleled by the similar smallness of the egg of 
the Raven above alluded to. The mottled-drab 
coloration which is the most usual is certainly not 
very unlike that of Wagtails' and Pipits' eggs, 
though the resemblance is far closer to that of the 



MIMICRY IN EGG-COLOUR 191 

Skylark than to any other bird's, but no Robin or 
Hedge- Sparrow, even if colour-bhnd, could fail to 
notice the difference of the alien egg. 

It is said that eggs resembling those of the foster- 
parents, such as the blue form found in the Re4- 
start's nest, tend to be confined to fosterers which 
are rarely patronized, leading to the inference that 
such are not easily duped, so that a perfect imitation 
has been evolved ; but such an explanation involves 
the assumptions that certain strains of Cuckoos 
always lay in particular birds' nests, and always 
produce eggs of the same colour, of which there is 
no evidence at present. Certainly, as in the case 
of Tree-Sparrows and Eagles, the same individual 
birds do not always lay similar eggs ; a very 
remarkable instance of this has occurred in the 
case of the Nightingale, in whose nest have been 
found an egg of the normal olive-brown, a blue 
one, and two of intermediate shades. 

In some Oriental Cuckoos there is a very perfect 
assimilation between the egg of the parasite and 
the fosterer ; the " Brain-fever-bird " (Hierococcyx 
varius) and the Pied Crested Cuckoo {Coccystes 
jacobinus) lay in the nests of Babbling-Thrushes 
{Craterofus and Argya) and their eggs are plain 
blue like those of the Babblers ; and the Koel 
{Eudynamis honor ata), the commonest and best- 
known Cuckoo in India, is parasitic on House and 
Jungle Crows {Corvus sflendens and C. culminatus), 
and lays an egg very like a small Crow's egg. It is 
doubtful, however, whether the imitation is here 



192 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

of any service, for just as Graham records in the 
'' Birds of lona and Mull " that he got Hooded 
Crows to hatch Bantam eggs smeared with indigo, 
so Mr. D. Dewar has got the House-Crow to hatch 
an ordinary Hen's egg. 

In the Koel, by the way, the parasitism is not 
so perfect as in the comm.on Cuckoo ; the young 
bird does not always eject the young Crows, and 
the old birds feed it after it has been reared in the 
Crows' nest. I have myself, however, seen the 
Crows feeding a young Koel, which is curious, as 
they hate and persecute the old bird. The Koel 
avails itself of this to get its egg deposited, the 
male bird drawing off the Crows in pursuit of him, 
while the female deposits her egg, presumably 
laying it in the nest, this being convenient, while 
the bird, like so many tropical fruit-eaters, seems 
never to come to the ground, and so is not likely 
to descend in order to lay there. 

Another case of incomplete parasitism among 
Cuckoos is recorded of an African species, the 
splendidly glittering little Emerald Cuckoo (Chryso- 
coccyx smaragdineus), which Keulemans, the late 
well-known bird artist, told Buller, as related by 
the latter in his *' Birds of New Zealand," is in 
the habit of hatching its solitary egg, and then 
leaving the young bird to the mercy of the bird 
public ; passing birds, he said, attracted by the 
cry of the Cuckoo nestling, dropped contributions 
into its mouth, an episode he had himself often 
witnessed on Prince's Island. 



TOLERATION IN A CUCKOO 193 

An allied but less brilliant species, one of the 
Bronze Cuckoos (C cwpreus)^ also African, is parasitic 
on such different small birds as Sun-birds and 
Finches ; a similar species, the Shining Cuckoo 
(C. lucidus) of New Zealand, generally lays its tgg 
in the nest of the small Grey Warbler {Gerygone 
fiaviventris), which makes a pensile nest with side 
entrance. This same little bird is parasitized by 
the other New Zealand Cuckoo {Urodynamts 
iaitensis), which is larger than our Cuckoo, while 
the Shining Cuckoo is much smaller. 

This large New Zealand Cuckoo, however, has 
also been found in the nest of the Wood-Robin 
(Miro albifrons), and it was particularly noted that 
although it throve well, and ultimately sat on top 
of the young Robins, these also lived, and when 
the young Cuckoo and a young Robin were removed 
and caged, the old Robins fed both of them. When 
a nest of the Grey Warbler containing a young 
Shining Cuckoo was watched in the same country, 
however, it was noticed that the young Warblers, 
although not immediately at all events ejected by 
their bedfellow, nevertheless died off one by one, 
and some were found outside. 

The large New Zealand Cuckoo is extending its 
parasitism to the introduced British birds, and also 
preys on their young, as it did on those of the 
native birds, and their eggs, when first studied ; 
these predatory habits make it less surprising that 
our Cuckoo should be credited with eating; some 
of the eggs of the foster-parents in whose nests 
13 



194 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

it deposits its own. Many must be familiar with 
the old rhyme about the Cuckoo, about which it 
is said that 

She sucks little birds' eggs 
To make her voice clear. 

A taste for the eggs of other birds is not at all 
uncommon among the insectivorous species — at 
any rate it frequently develops in captivity, and 
as to the antiquity of the tradition, it must be 
remembered that formerly Cuckoos were evidently 
far more familiar to the British public than they 
are now, judging by the allusions to them in our 
literature. Shakespeare in the '' Midsummer 
Night's Dream " makes Bully Bottom the Weaver 
allude to the " plain-song Cuckoo grey." 

I fancy most people nowadays, whether weavers 
or writers, would not be able to say off-hand of 
what colour a Cuckoo is. The colour of the young 
Cuckoo, however, with its black barring on a 
ground of brown above and whitish below, is 
evidently pretty familiar, this changeling being so 
often found in the nest of its fosterer, and exposing 
itself when fledged quite freely until it leaves us 
in the autumn, in a manner very unlike the stealthy 
habits of its parents in the spring ; so that it is 
not astonishing that " Cuckoo " is the poultry- 
fancier's term for a barred grey fowl such as the 
Plymouth-rock, though any brown shade in this 
breed would now be a disqualification. 

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CUCKOOS AND THEIR MODELS 195 

coloured just like a barred grey fowl of ordinary 
type and not of very high standard of marking, 
and that these are the grey species of the flightless 
Kiwis or Apteryxes. The coincidence of such a 
peculiar marking occurring in two such very 
different birds as the flightless nocturnal New 
Zealand Kiwi and varieties of our domestic fowls, 
should prepare us for coincidences in coloration, 
and help to make us sceptical about the survival 
value of the curious resemblances to Hawks seen 
in many of the Cuckoos. Some of these are cer- 
tainly most extraordinary ; the Brain-fever-bird 
or Hawk-Cuckoo of India above mentioned is extra- 
ordinarily like the common Hawk of the Indian 
plains known as the Shikra {Astur badius) and the 
resemblance is not confined to the adult birds, but 
extends to the young in first plumage, which are 
differently clad from them in both mimic and 
model. Another member of the genus Hiero- 
coccyx to which this bird belongs, H. sfarverioides, 
resembles another Sparrow-Hawk, the Besra {Acci- 
piter virgatus). 

The Hawk-like appearance of our own Cuckoo 
has often been commented on, but it is very sketchy 
compared with that of the above species, and the 
young and adult stages do not resemble the same 
kinds of Hawks, and the shape is less Sparrow-Hawk- 
like. Moreover, the young of the non-parasitic 
Crow-Pheasant is just as much like a Hawk, when of 
the barred type (some resemble the black, chestnut- 
winged adult, but are usually duller), as our young 



196 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

Cuckoo, and I have in Calcutta seen tame Guinea- 
Fowls and wild Crows distinctly impressed and 
apparently alarmed hy one of these young birds 
which came into my possession, just as in the Zoo 
the keepers find that their small birds from many 
countries kept in the West Aviary are frightened 
if a common Cuckoo is introduced to them. 

A fairly good general resemblance is therefore 
sufficient to impress birds, but the point of it 
seems to be wanting. If the Hawk-like appear- 
ance of certain Cuckoos scares the fated fosterers 
from their nest, what end is served by the Hawk- 
like appearance of the fostered young ? Besides, 
many parasitic Cuckoos are not like Hawks, or 
resemble Hawks found in a different country. 
Thus, the large New Zealand Cuckoo, as noted by 
Buller, is extremely like an American Hawk {Acci- 
fiter cooperi), but does not so closely resemble 
any native Hawk ; and the same Babblers which 
foster the Brain-fever-bird also rear, as has been 
said, the pied Crested Cuckoo which, with its 
crested head and plumage black above and white 
below, is like no Indian Hawk. Neither is any 
Hawk anywhere like the splendid Emerald, Bronze, 
and Violet Cuckoos, for adult Hawks and other birds 
of prey, like the downy young birds we have been 
considering, follow mammalian rules of colour, and 
eschew brilliant tints except on bare parts. 

Some even of the non-parasitic Cuckoos may 
have a rather Hawk-like coloration, like the large 
fruit-eating Cuckoo, Carpococcyx radiatus^ of the 



WIDE-SPREAD CUCKOO-PATTERN 197 

Malayan islands, which is indeed rather Pheasant- 
like in shape, but Hawk-like in pattern. The 
curious resemblance between most parasitic Cuckoos 
and the Hawks in having long thigh-plumes must 
be pure coincidence, as the short legs of the Cuckoos 
are not suited for exhibiting this point, and besides, 
the Hawks they most resemble are long on the 
leg ; Hawks also sit erect, not horizontally like 
Cuckoos. 

It must not be forgotten that the Sparrow-Hawk 
pattern, or Cuckoo pattern, whichever one chooses 
to call it, of a plain or nearly plain upper surface 
and a barred lower side, is one of the most strikingly 
recurrent patterns in the bird class, like the Magpie 
pattern to which Mr. D. Dewar and myself have 
drawn attention in our critical work on "The Making 
of Species." It is found, for instance, among the 
Passerines^ in many of the thence-named Cuckoo- 
Shrikes (Campephaga) ; in the male Barred Warbler 
of Europe (Sylvia nisoria) ; in both sexes of a little 
Australian Finch, the Cherry-crowned {Aidemosyne 
modes ta) ; in an Australian Duck, the Pink- eyed 
(Malacorhynchus memhranaceiis) ; in the female 
of the well-known Upland Goose {Chloephaga 
magellanica) — which also happens to have the 
gamboge-yellow feet so common in birds of prey, 
and so rare elsewhere, instead of the orange not 
uncommon in waterfowl — and in both sexes of an 
allied compatriot, the Ruddy-headed Goose (C. ruhi- 
dicefs) ; in an Indian Owl (Glaucidimn cuculoides), 
and in some little Doves of the genus Gcopelia. 



198 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

The most fervent advocate of mimicry will 
hardly maintain that small Doves and Passerines 
and big waterfowl mimic Hawks ; so why not put 
the whole thing down to coincidence ? The resem- 
blance of our Cuckoo to a Hawk does not save it 
from the real bird, for Mr. J. H. Owen in " British 
Birds " for 1914 expressly mentions Cuckoos among 
the victims of the Sparrow-Hawk. 

The Honey-guides, which are a family of very 
few species, appear to be all parasitic, but practically 
nothing is known about the ways of the Asiatic 
species, not even the extraordinary and well-known 
instinct of guiding men and the Ratel or Honey- 
badger {Mellivora) to bee-nests being recorded of 
them. The ^gg of the African Honey-guides, 
which is white, has been found in the nest of the 
White-throated Swallow (Hirundo alhigularis) by 
Mr. Ivy in the case of Sparrmann's Honey-guide 
{Indicator sparrmanni) as recorded in Stark and 
Sclater's '' Birds of South Africa " ; the same 
gentleman recorded the egg of the Yellow- throated 
species (7. major) in the nest of a Drongo-shrike ; 
while Mrs. Barber found the same species parasitizing 
the Black-collared Barbet (Lybius torquatus). She 
also found the Lesser Honey-guide (/. minor) 
parasitizing the Tinker, another Barbet of very 
small size {Barbatula pusilla). 

Mr. Ivy found a pair of the above-mentioned 
Black-collared Barbet actually trying to fight oS 
this Honey-guide from their nesting-hole, the 
intruder persistently returning ; evidently her case 



NESTLING HONEY-GUIDES 199 

was a desperate one, for when she was shot the egg 
was found to be actually half-laid. No doubt it is 
an emergency like this in the case of the common 
Cuckoo which accounts for the egg being found in 
such unlikely and unsuitable nests as those of the 
Wood-Pigeon and, of all others, the Dabchick ! 
The strong tendency of the Honey-guides to 
sponge on their own relatives, the Barbets, is 
noticeable ; the present species has been said to 
lay in the nests not only of those mentioned, but 
also in those of the Pied Barbet (Tricholc^ma leuco- 
melan) and of a Woodpecker (Mesoficus griseo" 
cefhalus). 

It is of interest here to note that the plumage of 
the Honey-guides is plain and ordinary in character 
in all the species, resembling that of the less con- 
spicuous Finches, and not in the least like the 
striking and often variegated tints of the fosterers 
they select. They appear, however, always to use 
the nests of birds which lay white eggs, though their 
own are distinguishable from these readily enough. 

The young Honey-guide has the ends of both 
jaws sharply hooked, which is not the case with 
the adult ; it is supposed that this structure is 
comparable to the hollowed back of the young 
Cuckoo, an adaptation to facilitate the ejection of 
the foster-fellow-nestlings, in this case to ensure a 
strong grip with the beak. The young Honey- 
guide certainly seems when found to have the nest 
to itself, like some youiig Cuckoos and Cow-birds, 
but it must be remembered with regard to th§ 



200 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

structure of the beak that this is in other cases 
sometinies more hooked in the young than in the 
adult, as in young Gannets and Herons ; and 
incidentally it would be well to examine all young 
Cuckoos available, to see if the non-parasitic species 
were hollow-backed at first as well as the others. 

The old Honey-guides appear to associate with 
the young when reared, and perhaps instruct them 
unconsciously or otherwise ; Mr. Ivy found two 
old and three young birds of the Scaly- throated 
species (/. variegatus) together, of which only one 
old bird would guide him. 

The parasitism of the Cow-birds is in a way 
more instructive than that of the Cuckoos and 
Honey-guides, because here the gradations of the 
instinct can be very plainly traced. These birds, 
which are among the most Finch-like of the Trou- 
pials, having short thick bills, and being able to 
live on dry seed which they crack in typical Finch 
fashion, are all closely related and easily recognizable. 

One of them, the original Cow-bird (Molohrus 
fecoris) of North America, is as truly and com- 
pletely parasitical as our Cuckoo, laying one tgg in 
the nests of various small insectivorous birds, which 
rear that young bird alone, so that the others 
evidently perish, even if not ejected ; a fate which 
is likely to befall weak young birds in any case, as 
exemplified by my Canary experience. This is a 
glossy-black species with a sooty-brown head in the 
male, brown in the female, and used to consort 
with bisons when they were common, as it now 



INCOMPETENT COW-BIRDS 201 

does with cattle, whence its scientific and popular 
names. Like the rest of the genus, it is chiefly 
a ground-bird and a walker, so that in general 
habits it presents no resemblance whatever to the 
parasitic Cuckoos. 

In South America are found several species, and 
it is to the able historian of the birds of Argentina 
Mr. W. H. Hudson, that we owe the elucidation of 
their curious half- developed instincts. The best- 
known species, the glossy Cow-bird {Molohrus bonar- 
iensis), is very common and often imported here 
as a cage-bird ; the male is a resplendent purple 
and the hen sooty. It is truly parasitic in that its 
young are always reared by other birds, but its 
parasitism is slovenly and incomplete. Several 
females will lay in the same foster-nest, and fairly 
swamp it with their undesired contributions, 
whereas it is rare in the case of the Cuckoo to 
find two parasite eggs in one nest. To this suicidal 
instinct they add another equally silly, of destroying 
any sort of eggs they may come across, those of 
their own species included ; and moreover they 
recklessly drop eggs about on the ground, a habit 
shared by another South American bird, the Rhea. 
And just as the hen Rheas are, so to speak, parasitic 
on their own males, and pool their eggs in his nest, 
so these hen Cow-birds occasionally make a futile 
nest of their own, in some silly place such as on 
the leaves of a large thistle, and leave even this 
poor attempt unfinished. 

Then there is a species, brown with chestnut 



202 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

wings in both sexes {M. badius), which is also 
common, and is not parasitic, except to the mild 
extent of stealing another bird's nest when it 
can ; this species is itself parasitized by another 
(M. Tufo- axillaris) in which both sexes are black. 

I particularize the colours of these species because 
it is interesting to note that the one with the 
simplest and probably most primitive coloration 
retains its primitive habits, and the most advanced 
in coloration is actually parasitic on this ; a fact 
which, however curious it may. appear, is not so 
paradoxical after all, for allied species recognize 
each other's affinity, and as long as a member of a 
parasitical group retained the ordinary nesting- 
habits of birds, it is, after all, at least as reasonable 
that a parasite should quarter itself on this as on 
an alien. There is, however, no case known of a 
parasitic Cuckoo quartering its offspring on an 
independent one, although species of both types 
are habitually found in the same countries in the 
Old World. 

The one Cow-bird which penetrates into the 
northern half of the American continent is, like 
our exceptionally widely-ranging Cuckoo, a bird of 
extended parasitism, favouring various species of 
small Finches and insectivorous birds ; with the 
Cat-bird {Galeoscoftes carolinensis), a larger species 
than most of its fosterers, it is seldom successful, 
and the Golden Warbler (Dendroeca cesti'vd) some- 
times disposes of the Cow-bird's ^gg^ not by turning 
it out of the nest, but by building a fresh floor over 



THE DRONGO AND ITS MIMIC 203 

it, and in the case of a repeated invasion by the 
parasite, may have recourse to this expedient more 
than once. 

Another case of parasitism, and in this case also 
on aUies, is furnished hy the Troupials, the large 
black Cassidix oryzivora, a bird about the size of 
a Jackdaw, being a parasite on some of the other 
Troupials known as Hang-nests. 

Cow-birds do not mimic their dupes in appear- 
ance any more than Honey-guides ; and indeed 
this resemblance to an alien fosterer only appears 
in one or two Cuckoos, and is doubtful there. One 
Eastern Cuckoo, indeed (Surniculus dicruroides), has 
been called the Drongo-Cuckoo, and attained a 
great celebrity in books and museums, owing to 
its resemblance to the common, conspicuous, and 
highly pugnacious black Drongo- Shrikes (Dicrurus), 
which it is believed to parasitize, though the chief 
evidence of this is that a pair of Drongos has been 
seen to kill one of these Cuckoos, which does not 
look as if the resemblance did much good to its 
possessor. 

The size and general shape of Drongo and 
Drongo-Cuckoo are certainly very similar, but after 
all there are plenty of birds of which this could 
be said ; the black colour goes for nothing, as 
there are several other black Cuckoos, parasitic and 
otherwise, such as Cuculus clamosus allied to our 
Cuckoo, Coccystes serratus among the crested para- 
sitic Cuckoos, and the whole genus Crotophaga or 
Anis among the non-parasites. Moreover, the tail 



204 SIRD BEHAVIOUR 

of the Drongo-mimic is only square or slightly 
forked, whereas the tail of the Drongo itself has an 
extra strong and deep fork with an outward turn 
like that of our Blackcock, so that these spirited 
Shrikes would have to be uncommonly bad observers 
not to detect the impostor at a glance. 

However that may be, the other case does not 
seem very much better ; one of the Koels of the 
genus Eudynamis allied to the Indian Koel above 
mentioned lays in Borneo in the nest of a Talking 
Mynah {Eulahes)^ and the young of both sexes are 
said to be black, as males of this genus of Cuckoos 
always are, the hens being speckled like hen 
Pheasants. This is supposed to deceive the parent 
Mynahs, which are black birds, while the Cuckoos 
are growing up, the hen getting her colour 
later on. 

Something similar has been said about the 
Indian Koel, which, as we have seen, parasitizes 
Crows, birds which are certainly more clever than 
any Mynah ; but as a matter of fact, in Bengal at 
any rate, young Koels do not resemble the male in 
all cases. Young cocks are black, indeed, but have 
some buffy markings, and young hens are almost as 
variegated as the old birds, equally so in fact save 
for a solid black cap. It would surely be far more 
to the point for the hen to be like a Crow, so as 
to approach the nest in greater safety, if evolution 
here were proceeding on orthodox lines. And as to 
the resemblance of the young to that of fosterers, 
the^Hawk-like young of other Cuckoos manage to 



A FUTILE RESEMBLANCE 205 

get brought up all right, in spite of the absence of 
resemblance to the fosterers' true young, and of 
the presence of a resemblance to the most hated 
and feared of birds. 

Resemblances to some other bird than a near 
ally seem to be a marked peculiarity of the Cuckoo 
family ; not only do some of the parasitic Cuckoos 
look like Hawks, and at least 'one, as we have seen, 
rather like a Drongo, but the largest of this type, 
the Channel-bill, is so like a Hornbill that it was 
early described as one — ^yet there are no Hornbills 
in Australia, where this bird occurs, and the nearest 
Hornbill, found in New Guinea, is not that which 
the Channel-bill resembles, the likeness being to 
some of the small grey Indian species. 

A parasitic Cuckoo may even resemble a non- 
parasitic one, as in the case of the crested Coccystes 
coromanduSy which is coloured just like a non- 
parasitic " Crow-Pheasant " {Centrofus monachus), 
though the former is Indian and the latter African, 
so that an excellent case of what is called in insects 
*' Mullerian mimicry " falls to the ground. It 
would be just as well for parasitic Cuckoos if they 
did get mistaken for stronger birds, as they are 
often bullied, even by species which they do not 
infest, but from what has been said, there does 
not seem to be any really definite development of 
this mimicry in appearance. 



CHAPTER VII 

Migration— An anciently observed pKenomenon still imperfectly 
understood — Reasons for it — ^Methods as far as is known — 
Difference between migratory species and the homing Pigeon 
— ^Widespread tendency to migration, contrasted with con- 
tradictory tendency to form localized non-migratory races, 
ending in some cases in Sightlessness, as in some birds of 
remote islands 

Migration has always been a conspicuous pheno- 
menon in the lives of certain birds, and often, as in 
the case of Wildfowl and Quails, intimately bound 
up with the question of human food-supplies, so 
that it is a very familiar fact ; but in spite of this 
familiarity, it is still far from being properly under- 
stood. The old idea of the hibernation of some 
i])irds is indeed definitely done away with, and 
nowadays no one seems to believe that small birds 
ever ride on big ones ; yet Bee- eaters in Africa 
have been found riding on Storks or Bustards when 
these were searching for prey on the ground, and 
taking their share of the insects driven up ; so 
where is the difficulty of a weary Wren or Warbler 
taking refuge on a Swan or Gannet, which certainly 
could not dislodge it in mid-air ? I mention this 

^because there is no physical impossibility involved, 

206 



A MIGRANT IN MINIATURE 207 

as in the case of Swallows, which were supposed 
to winter under water, and the case is worth con- 
sidering. 

As to the reasons for migration, we have here 
some chance, when we know more completely the 
life-history of the birds, of finding them out ; and 
at the outset, migration is in its essence simply the 
periodical removal of an animal from conditions 
which have ceased to be attractive to a locality 
where it is, or expects to be, more comfortable. It 
is not confined to birds, for some fish are well- 
known migrants — one has only to cite the salmon — 
and mammals also undertake migrations, as the 
American bison used to do, and as sea-lions do still. 

A very interesting case is that of a small and 
very local British land-snail (Helicodonta obvoluta)^ 
now only found here on a limited area on the 
South Downs, which executes a miniature migra- 
tion from its hibernating haunt on the ground to 
the branches of the beech- trees in spring, spending 
the summer aloft, and in autumn coming down the 
trunk to bury itself again. There is no essential 
difference between the short journey of this humble 
mollusc and the enormous transit of the world's 
record migrant, the Arctic Tern, which breeds up 
to the northern limit of land, and in our winter 
reaches, on its southern migrations, even to the 
cheerless shores of the Antarctic continent, there 
to enjoy whatever sort of summer that unpromising 
region can offer itk 

Migrations in elevation, made no doubt very 



2o8 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

often with little or no use of the wings in the case 
of ground birds, are quite the normal thing in hill- 
living birds, as in so many species inhabiting the 
Himalayas ; the splendid Monaul or Impeyan 
Pheasant {Lofhofhorus refulgens), for instance, ranges 
up to the very edge of the forest belt in summer, 
and comes down in winter into the lower deciduous 
woods, where there is more chance of food. Wild 
Turkeys in America used to wander long distances 
in search of mast, acorns, etc., though their powers 
of flight are so limited that in crossing a river a 
mile broad, some of the weaker birds were certain 
to fall in and have to finish the transit as best they 
could by swimming, and it took days of gobbling 
exhortation from the old cocks to get the emigrants' 
spirit up to the pitch of starting at all. 

Want of food is obviously the chief reason why 
birds of high elevations or high latitudes have to 
leave their haunts ; cold is by itself very little 
operative, for it is not surprising that birds prove 
comparatively indifferent to it, considering their 
naturally high temperature and particularly warm 
clothing. Not only do numerous tropical Finches 
and Parrakeets winter safely in outdoor aviaries, 
but of our poultry the majority come from hot 
climates, the Fowl and Peacock, for instance, being 
typical inhabitants of the plains and foothills of 
India. With the end of autumn, however, comes 
not only scarcity of food, but absence of cover, 
owing to the deciduous character of so much 
temperate vegetation, so that both for fear of 



BRAVING OUT THE WINTER 209 

getting nothing to eat and of becoming food for 
others, the birds of temperate climates have to 
seek a warmer country for the winter. 

Species whose habits render them independent of 
leaves and herbage and fresh water tend to be 
resident ; thus, the Eider-Duck and Razor-bill 
will winter on the edge of the Arctic ice, and 
Woodpeckers and Tits, whose food is sought on 
boughs and trunks rather than on leaves, can 
pass the winter in leafless forests that Warblers 
and Cuckoos must leave, while the Grouse feed 
on conifer-needles and buds or burrow in the 
snow for their food. Berry- eating birds like 
Thrushes can live till the supply is gone, and a 
confirmed berry-eater, the Waxwing, roves about 
the north all winter, its long wings, almost Swallow- 
like in form, giving it ranging powers that enable it 
to dispense with a distant southern journey in many 
years, though it may even reach Northern India. 
Some birds of prey, too, remain even in the high 
north as long as there is anything to be picked up, 
such as the Snowy Owl, though even this has 
strayed south to the Punjab. 

The universality of the migration depends of 
course on local conditions ; thus in the compara- 
tively mild climate of our islands many species are 
to be seen throughout the year which are migratory 
in corresponding latitudes on the Continent, the 
Robin and Song-Thrush for instance. Swallows 
often remain after their time of leaving, and, as 
Gilbert White observed, they stay particularly late 

H 



210 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

about Oxford, and I have been the unwilling witness 
of the gradual failure and death, evidently from 
hunger, of some of these poor would-be colonists 
in permanency. 

Birds of passage in the Southern Hemisphere 
naturally migrate north in winter, from the same 
motives as induce the northern birds to go south, 
but there is a curious exception in the case of the 
Emperor Penguin, which chooses mid-winter in its 
haunts on the Antarctic ice-floes as the tim_e for 
laying and rearing its chick. Some other birds, 
too, seem to come into breeding condition at most 
unlikely-seeming times, for the fragile little Sun- 
birds in some cases breed in high mountainous 
parts of South Africa in winter when the snow 
lies quite deep under their hanging nests. 

Besides the direct north and south migrations 
also, there are cases where the migration is rather 
from east to west, as in the cases'],of the White-eyed 
and Red-crested Pochards {Nyroca africana and 
Netta rufina)^ whose chief winter haunt is in India, 
though their breeding-range extends not only into 
Central Asia, but far west into Europe. The 
Rosy Pastor presents the unusual case of a bird 
which has a fixed wintering station in the east, 
and a pronounced westerly migration, but no 
definite breeding- haunt ; for these birds in winter 
are essentially Indian, but breed in Western Asia 
and Eastern Europe, but in different places in 
different years, the flocks, which keep together even 
in the breeding-season and nest in company, 



LIFE ON THE EASTERN ISLES 211 

settling down to breed irregularly in different 
spots, being guided apparently by the abundance of 
the locusts, which form a favourite food. 

In the East Indies there are curious cases of 
inter-insular migration in at least two Pigeons, the 
ground- feeding Nicobar or Hackled Pigeon (Calcenas 
nicobarica) and the arboreal Pied Fruit-Pigeon 
(Myristicwora luctuosa), which wander far and wide 
in the many islands of the Indian Ocean, but 
do not come to the mainland. The case of the 
Nicobar Pigeon is particularly remarkable, as only 
scattered pairs are found breeding elsewhere than 
on Batty Malve, a small and fortunately very 
inaccessible islet in the Nicobar group, which 
appears to be a perfect Pigeon-house during the 
season when the birds rear their single chick. 

This regular return to isolated spots in huge 
numbers is almost unique in a land-bird, but, as is 
well known, quite a common thing among sea-fowl, 
especially Petrels and Penguins ; it was only com- 
paratively recently found out where one of the com- 
monest and most widespread among southern ocean 
Petrels, the well-known spotted " Cape Pigeon " 
{paption capensis), nested, the locality being Ker- 
guelen. Wilson's Petrel {Oceanites oceanicus) also 
nests in Kerguelen, and spends the southern winter 
in the north, affording a rare instance of a southern- 
breeding bird crossing the equator, though it is 
quite the usual thing for migrants from north to 
south to go far south of this line. 

It has, indeed, been found that of migratory 



212 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

"" groups, the species which go farthest north to breed 
often winter farthest south, as exempHfied among 
the Swifts and the Turtle-Doves ; among Ducks, 
too, the arctic-breeding Pin-tail and Wigeon go 
farther south than the temperate-zone-haunting 
Mallard. None of the Geese, however, which 
mostly breed in the high north, go very far south. 
Many naturalists seem puzzled as to why birds 
which have escaped starvation by going towards 
equatorial lands should retrace their course again 
to the countries they have left ; but this is because 
they have generally little practical acquaintance 
with any but the birds of the Northern Hemisphere, 
where only, in Europe and the United States, do 
ornithologists much abound. To any one who 
knows the tropics, the problem does not seem so 
wonderful. In the less well-watered parts of these 
countries, the heat of the hot season produces 
effects not so very different from the frosts of the 
temperate winter. Herbage and leaves are parched 
up, with the result that both insect and vegetable 
food become scarce, and the water supply is much 
restricted. Under these conditions reptiles, frogs, 
and even fish " sestivate," i.e, go in for a summer 
sleep, in the case of the aquatic creatures burying 
themselves in the mud, and native birds of aquatic 
habits have to leave these districts for better- 
watered ones. 

Obviously, then, the migrants are no better off, 
and have every reason to get out of a country in 
which the residents have all they can do to survive. 



HEAT AND ITS INFLUENCE 213 

The heat itself may have something to do with 
m^aking them leave, although on the vi^hole birds 
from temperate countries or of mountaineering 
habits seem to bear heat as well as tropical resi- 
dents, judging from what I was able to observe at 
the Calcutta Zoo. 

This is a most remarkable fact, considering that 
the very peculiarities of birds I alluded to above as 
fitting them to withstand cold are just those 
which ought to make them susceptible to heat ; 
and it is a curious fact that the warmly-clad Duck 
tribe bear heat, even when migrants from the 
north, particularly well, while the thinly-clothed 
Pheasant family are more susceptible than any other 
birds ; the Monaul bears heat worse than any bird 
I know, panting in a temperature which provokes 
no such manifestation of oppression from any other 
bird. Among the Pigeons, too, I noted the Hima- 
layan Snow-Pigeon (Columba leuconota) showed no 
distress at the heat, although a high alpine bird, 
while some of the warm-climate- dwelling fruit- 
Pigeons were obviously affected, as were many 
Parrots. Crows also feel heat much, even tropical 
species like the Indian House-Crow, and the House- 
Sparrow, although it lives well through both heat 
and cold, pants constantly in the Indian summer, 
while the imported Goldfinch seems quite indifferent 
to heat. 

It is noteworthy, too, that while the Mallard in 
its wild state does not visit the tropics except on 
its southern migrations, its descendant, the domestic 



214 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

Duckj lives and breeds well there, the most spe- 
cialized of all its breeds, the Penguin Duck — 
apparently the ancestor of the so-called " Indian " 
Runner, so deservedly popular nowadays — being 
characteristic of the Malay Islands, so that, though 
even in this country young Ducklings are found to 
be very intolerant of heat, it must have been long 
and perfectly acclimatized in the East ; and many 
of the migratory Ducks I watched in confinement 
in Calcutta showed distinct signs of wishing to 
breed. , 

On the whole, then, there is little evidence 
that the direct effect of heat itself has influenced 
the spring-time ebb of bird-life away from the 
tropics ; but its indirect effects, as hinted above, 
are another matter, and apropos of this it may be 
noted that in the Bombay famine of a few years 
ago the game-birds, which could not migrate, 
suffered and died just as if they were mammals, 
while better flyers escaped. 

Then there has to be taken into consideration 
the attitude of the bird-population of the tropics 
themselves. It is true that this is so numerous 
and varied that the huge tidal wave of migrants 
from the north into India makes no more obvious 
difference to the human observer of the bird 
population than does the influx of the football 
crowd into London on the occasion of the great 
Cup-tie contest to the apparent fulness of the 
metropolis, and no doubt things are much the 
same elsewhere. 



PRESSURE FROM RESIDENTS 215 

But birds, like savage tribes and civilized nations, 
have boundaries to consider, and if they invade the 
territories of others, must sooner or later have to 
fight for a place or return whence they came. And 
in such a contest, which must be inevitable in the 
tropics when food and favourable locations get at 
all scarce, the advantage is all on the side of the 
residents, which are generally speaking birds of 
a superior type mentally and morally, even when 
less specialized physically, and perhaps, indeed, on 
that very account. They generally excel the birds 
of temperate regions in courage, social instincts, 
and intelligence, as is shown by their much greater 
power of combination, and by the far superior 
nests they often build. Finches of the typical 
temperate-zone groups have a poor time in an 
aviary if crowded along with Weavers, and the 
Tree-Ducks know how to make the migratory 
temperate-zone Ducks respect them, while the 
solitary Thrushes would have a poor chance against 
the Babblers, with their powers of combination 
which enable them often to resist even Hawks. 

There is a popular belief that birds in temperate 
climates sing better than in the tropics, but all the 
foundation for this idea is the fact that the Nightin- 
gales are birds of the temperate zone, and that 
some very common Thrushes are good singers ; 
with the exception of the Nightingales no singers 
of the north of the Old World can surpass, or even 
equal, the Shama (Cittocincla macrura) and Orange- 
headed Ground-Thrush {Geocichla citrind) of India, 



2i6 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

and in the New World the Mocking-birds (Mimus) 
are essentially southern, though the most celebrated 
(M. folyglottus) ranges into the northern states. The 
only point in which the birds of temperate climates 
really excel the tropical forms is in power of flight, 
which they have had perforce to cultivate, and 
even this superiority is not universal, for there are 
some of the most magnificent flyers among the 
Parrots and Pigeons, which are essentially tropical 
to say nothing of Frigate-birds and Tropic -birds. 

In addition to influences of this kind, which are 
operative on young and old birds alike, there is the 
instinctive attachment to the breeding-place, which 
is so strong in birds that they have often been 
recorded as returning to it for many years in suc- 
cession. This of course must act to a certain 
extent on the old birds, and even the young, if 
at all uncomfortable where they find themselves 
by the time they complete their first year, are 
most likely to come back to the place which gave 
them birth, and where they had their first insight 
into the enjoyments of flight and independence. 

The main point about migration, therefore, is 
the fixing of the methods, not the motive ; and it 
is here that we are confronted with problems 
difficult to solve. The case of the Homing Pigeon 
ought to give us some help, but such Pigeons are 
well known to be guided almost entirely by sight, 
and to need training by gradually increased stages ; 
whereas birds of passage frequently, perhaps most 
commonly, fly by night, and, in the autumn migra- 



THE HOMING INSTINCT 217 

tion, the young often leave the land of their birth 
before the adults do. A converse case of juvenile 
independence is that of the common Cuckoo, the 
old birds leaving us in July, while the young remain 
till the general southward movement of migrants 
in September, long after all old Cuckoos have 
left us. 

That many birds have some method of correctly 
directing their course without the aid of sight is 
shown not only by the night-flights of many, but 
by the return of Penguins to their breeding-grounds, 
unable as they necessarily are to take a wide survey, 
owing to their flightlessness ; by the return ' of 
Noddy and Sooty Terns to their breeding-places 
in the Southern United States after they had been 
taken away and released hundreds of miles north of 
their range, and by at least two instances of flying 
birds taking the correct direction on foot when 
deprived of the power of flight, that of a Canada 
Goose recorded by Audubon, and of an Upland 
Goose cited by Mr. Hudson — though in the latter 
case it must be admitted that the bird's full-winged 
mate was with it. These cases are, however, par- 
ticularly interesting in that in the former the bird's 
spring destination was north, and in the latter 
south. In England, also, a cock Reeves's Pheasant, 
released thirty miles away from home, was found 
next day perched on the aviary in which he had 
been bred. 

There is undoubtedly a great deal of more or 
less random movement, especially in young birds ; 



2i8 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

such are particularly apt to appear in localities not 
normally frequently by their species, as I found in 
the case of the invasion of India in the late 'nineties 
by Baer's White- eyed Pochard {Nyroca baeri), most 
of the specimens I obtained being young birds. 
Birds also often range for a time north of their 
breeding-haunts in autumn, and may even fly out 
into the Atlantic from our coasts, only to perish 
or come back utterly exhausted. 

There is thus a good deal to be said in justification 
for the statement that young birds " wander almost 
at random," and that most of them are probably 
destroyed before the next spring ; and the dangers 
of a long migration may be the chief reason why 
birds are more numerous, but less fertile, in the 
tropics, where there is not this wholesale risk to 
be faced annually. Of course there is a good deal 
of local movement even in the tropics, but not 
much is known about this as yet, and the journeys 
are inevitably far less risky. 

It has been pointed out that the reason why 
day-birds so often migrate by night is that by so 
doing they utilize hours which would in any case 
have to be spent without food, and thus economize 
time and strength ; but the ever-present danger 
of Gulls, Carrion-Hawks, and Crows, some or other 
of which are always to be found along every coast, 
all on the alert to note signs of weariness in birds 
they ordinarily would have no hope of capturing, 
must surely have something to do with this, and 
it is to be noted that in all groups the larger or 



RELINQUISHING TRAVEL 219 

more powerfully-flying species are more inclined to 
day migration than the feebler folk ; thus. Crows 
and Swallows among the Passerines, and Geese and 
Swans among the wildfowl, migrate by day, as do 
Hawks, Storks, and other powerful and predatory 
birds. 

The tendency to migration is nearly universal 
among birds of temperate zones ; even, as re- 
marked above, in species not usually thought of 
as migrants, because always visible at any time of 
year in our country at least ; the most thoroughly 
sedentary of flying birds being the Game-birds and 
Woodpeckers, which have special facilities for 
finding food, though even of these some migrate, 
such as the Quail and Greater Spotted Woodpecker. 

On the other hand, there is a strong tendency for 
migrants to settle down and form non-migratory 
local races ; thus, most of our resident British 
birds are recognizably different from the conti- 
nental individuals of the same species which visit 
us, and are nowadays distinguished as local races or 
sub-species ; and we may notice that the Blackbird 
shows a much greater tendency to become per- 
manently resident in the north than the Thrush, 
a weaker and less versatile but more strongly-flying 
bird. The Quail, one of the most anciently-known 
migrants, often used to pass the winter here when 
it was commoner, and conversely has been known 
to breed in numbers in India, usually only a winter- 
resort, while it has established resident races in 
Spain and in the Canaries, although attempts to 



220 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

introduce it artificially into the United States have 
failed. 

This tendency to settle down and have done 
with the fatigues and dangers of migration has 
resulted in the production of many localized and 
often insular races of birds, which have often 
become flightless, where flight was of little import- 
ance in their daily life ; thus we had the Great 
Auk in the north, formerly a most abundant bird, 
and in the Galapagos there has been discovered of 
late years a flightless Cormorant (Nannopterum 
harrisi), and on the elevated Lake Titicaca in the 
Peruvian Andes there lives a flightless Grebe 
{Podicifes mi cr of term), such a lake being the bio- 
logical equivalent of an oceanic island. 

Such, flightless species are to be found most com- 
monly amongst the Rails, birds which migrate a 
good deal, but are nevertheless poor flyers as a 
whole, and always more ready to use their legs than 
their wings ; they also have a most peculiar pro- 
pensity for turning up in the most out-of-the-way 
places, being probably unable to make head against 
a wind, while their power of swimming enables 
them to rest on the water and gain fresh strength 
where others would drown. 

The widest migrant and most successful bird of 
all is the little unspecialized Turnstone, which is 
to be found on all shores in the world at one 
time or other of the year, and is strongly sus- 
pected of having established] breeding colonies far 
and wide in the world, though its main haunts 



THE SUCCESS OF THE TERNS 221 

in the nesting-season are undoubtedly in the 
north. 

When we come to consider groups, however, the 
palm for success in the struggle for existence, as 
evidenced by wide distribution over the world, must 
be awarded to the Terns, a very highly specialized 
group in structure, exaggerating the points of their 
more generalized family relations the Gulls. Gulls 
go nearly everywhere, but are much rarer in or 
near the Tropics than in colder regions, and rarely 
breed there, and are absent altogether in the 
Central Pacific. But you cannot go anywhere 
without meeting Terns, not only in remote islands, 
but in the interior of great continents, for there 
are many freshwater species. 

Those curious exaggerations of the Tern type, 
the Scissor-bills (Rhynchop), with the " under- 
shot " beak with which they plough the water for 
small fish, are all warm-climate birds, but the few 
species between them extend all round the world. 

Although there are no islands too distant for 
such birds as these — and of course the oceanic 
Petrels — to have reached, there are some which 
are too out-of-the-way for any land-bird. When 
Mr. W. L. Sclater was sent to investigate the 
birds of the Chagos Islands, a small group in the 
Indian Ocean, he found no land-bird there except 
the little Scarlet Weaver {Foudia madagascarietisis), 
a most obvious human introduction ; and on Easter 
Island, although a small land-bird has been re- 
ported, it has never been brought to book, and 



222 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

the Tinamous found there have been introduced 
from Chile. 

In Hawaii, too, the Kingfishers and Pigeons and 
Parrots, which are elsewhere most widely spread 
in the Pacific, are wanting, though a Chinese Turtle- 
Dove (Turtur chinensis) has been successfully intro- 
duced, as also has an Australian Parrakeet, the 
Mealy Rosella {Platycercus pallidiceps), the original 
stock in the latter case being but a single pair. 
This being so, it is a great pity that a pair of the 
common Belted Kingfisher of North America 
{Ceryle alcyon) were shot on arrival, as they might 
also have found a footing, and this natural intro- 
duction of a new form would have been most 
interesting to watch. The irruption of even a 
large number of new birds, however, does not neces- 
sarily always mean success, as in the case of the 
failure of the well-known repeated attempts of 
hordes of Pallas's Sand-Grouse to colonize Western 
Europe, where they hatched young even v^th us. 

An interesting example of successful emigration, 
and that by a bird which nowadays very rarely 
migrates at all, is furnished by the career of the 
Magpie, a bird whose unique and conspicuous 
appearance and — -where it is not persecuted — its 
abundance and familiarity, have always made it 
one of the best known of birds, as the many stories 
and superstitions relating to it abundantly testify. 

It is very doubtful if this bird was known to the 
ancient Greeks, for no species mentioned in their 
writings can be definitely identified with it, unless 



THE MAGPIE'S ODYSSEY 223 

it was the '' Lycian Daw " of Aristotle, which is not 
described, but merely mentioned by name among 
other " Daws," in his work on the *' History of 
Animals." The bird the Greeks called Kiss a or 
Kitta, which some scholars have taken for the 
Magpie, was evidently the Jay, since Aristotle 
mentions its characteristic habit of storing away 
the acorns, and in enumerating the various species 
of Thrushes compares the Missel-Thrush to it 
in size, a comparison for which the Magpie would 
be obviously unsuitable owing to its long tail. 
The Pica of the Romans, from which word the 
French and English " Pie " is evidently derived, 
was also the Jay, for here again the acorn-eating 
habit is mentioned by Pliny, who also speaks of his 
Pica, as Chaucer, so many centuries later, mentions 
the Jay, as a bird kept for talking. The Roman 
naturalist also gives us a definite clue to the extension 
of the Magpie's range in his time, for he says that 
of late years a new sort of Pie (Pica) had appeared 
in the neighbourhood of Rome, noticeable for its 
varied (or pied) colouring and long tail. 

Many centuries later we have a definite historical 
record of another westerly irruption of Magpies, 
when about the year 1676 a flock of about a dozen 
is stated to have arrived in Wexford — the ancestors 
of the numerous Magpies which now form so 
noticeable a feature in the bird-life of Ireland. 
That they did not inhabit that island previously is 
known from the " Itinerary " of Fynes Moris on, 
who expressly notices their absence in 161 7. 



224 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

As the Magpie is found in Western America 
and all along the width of Asia in the north, it would 
seem as if it were originally an American bird 
which has in the course of thousands of years been 
moving continually westwards, although on the 
other hand the American birds may be a colony 
which crossed Bering Straits in the opposite direction 
to found a colony in the New World, as the Alaska 
Wheatears are doing, in which case we might look 
to Central Asia as the cradle of the Magpie race ; 
it stands so much alone in the Crow tribe that it 
has no near relatives to give us a clue. 



CHAPTER VIII 

The senses of birds — Sight and its general high development-— 
Degree of perception of colour — Influence of colour, if any, 
on courtship, and the segregation of species — ^Perception of 
the colour in various kinds of food — Smell, usually poorly 
developed — ^Exceptions noted — ^Acuteness of hearing — Sense 
of touch — ^Taste-perceptions. 

The senses of birds are nearly all well developed, 
though the mechanism of the sense-organs is some- 
times much less elaborate than in the case of 
mammals, an important instance of the want of 
correlation of structure with function. In power 
of sight they, as a rule, surpass all other animals, 
this being the dominant sense in all birds except the 
Apteryxes or Kiwis of New Zealand, which see very 
badly, not only in the day, when they are naturally 
at rest, but even at night, when they will walk 
right up to a person when at large, and show no 
alarm when a white handkerchief is waved at them 
when in captivity. 

There is a possibility that there are great differ- 
ences in the powers of distant sight of ordinary 
birds, but there is little or no evidence so far on 
this head. Macgillivray has indeed suggested in his 
book on British Birds that the Spanow-Hawk is 
15 22s 



226 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

short-sighted, because he had observed it does not 
seem to see birds in a hedge at a hundred yards' 
distance, and does not attack except at a range of 
a few yards. The obvious criticism on this, how- 
ever, is that the Sparrow-Hawk, Hke other birds of 
prey, does not waste time and strength in attempt- 
ing attacks which have no reasonable prospect of 
success ; its strategy is mainly one of surprises, for 
though capable of very great speed for a short 
dash, it is not suited for a long pursuit. It there- 
fore pays no ^attention to birds which it does not 
consider favourably placed for attack. 

I have seen behaviour in Kites in Calcutta which 
exactly suggests this. The Kite has no speed at 
all, but can execute a very successful surprise 
stoop, snatching food even from a man in a most 
disconcerting manner. I have seen one of these 
birds, passing with the slow flapping flight which it 
employs when travelling at a low elevation of about 
the height of the house-tops, evidently meditating 
an attack on a Dabchick and her young on the 
Calcutta Museum tank. The thought in the Kite's 
mind was obvious, as it hung on its wings for a 
moment over the little group ; but " chip, chip," 
went the Dabchick — ^which ordinarily never bothered 
about Kites — beginning to " go down by the bows " 
in preparation for a dive, her downy young imitat- 
ing her, evidently reading the enemy's intentions ; 
and the enemy's comprehension of the hopelessness 
of the situation was equally complete, for the 
poising was but momentary, and the Kite flapped 



THE VISION OF VULTURES 227 

on again, knowing that before its stoop could 
reach the water the quarry would be under it. 

Only occasionally were such very faint attempts 
made, the numerous Kites knowing full well the 
uselessness of attack, and this no doubt explains 
why they never carried off the sitting Dabchick or 
her young when resting on the very exposed nest. 
One I bought in the bazaar and threw up near the 
pond, failing to get under way and falling to the 
ground, was instantly snapped up by a Kite within 
a few feet of me. A dead Sparrow was also instantly 
picked up, though live ones were not chased ; yet 
a released cage-bird, if at all weak on the wing, 
was instantly pursued. 

The sight of the high-soaring birds of prey is / 
supposed to be particularly fine, and certainly 
Vultures seem to be able to perceive a dead animal 
when themselves out of human sight, though of 
course they are often guided to their prey by 
observing the movements of others floating at a 
lower elevation, or of lesser scavengers such as 
Kites and Crows, flying near the earth. 

In this connection it is interesting to note that 
the eyes of most Vultures are small compared to 
those of Eagles, and are not overhung by a bony 
brow, perhaps because less exact observation is 
necessary in their case ; but in the ordinary way, 
size of eye seems to have no more to do with power 
of vision in birds than in man, the usually small- 
eyed Ducks and Geese being to all appearance quite 
as quick-sighted as any other birds. Nor does 



228 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

there seem to be any connection between colour 
of iris and visual powers, both Owls and Hawks, for 
instance, being found with either dark or yellow 
eyes ; this is, of course, not surprising, as the iris 
itself plays no direct part in vision, but some 
correlation might have conceivably existed. 

That some birds have powers of sight surpassing 
those of man is known from the use of the Great 
Grey Shrike by the Hawk-catchers at Valkenswaard 
in Holland, who are informed by their tethered 
Shrike of the appearance of a bird of prey before 
they could see it themselves, and when nearer, 
of its character, whether Harrier or Buzzard on the 
one hand, or Falcon or Goshawk, by the degree 
of agitation shown by the sentinel. 

The Indian Roller (Coracias indica), too, sitting 
lazily on a telegraph wire in the glare of the Indian 
sun, perceives and flies down to an insect or other 
small prey at a distance at which human eyes 
would certainly not perceive such an object; while 
many must have wondered how a Kingfisher, or 
even more a Gannet, discovers a fish and is able to 
judge its distance from the surface sufficiently well 
to make a successful swoop. It must be admitted, 
however, that the Kingfisher at all events makes 
at least as many misses as hits, not having so much 
judgment as some of the birds of prey I have been 
mentioning ; and, speaking of most birds, they do 
not behave as if their power of sight were any 
better than our own. 

Diving-birds, however, may enjoy better sight 



SIGHT OF OWLS IN DAYTIME 229 

under water than we do ; at any rate it is interesting 
to note that just as we use a water-glass to examine 
the bottom, so do Grebes and Cormorants often 
put their head under water to beyond the eyes 
before diving to get a clear view. These hunters 
under water can, however, generally see as well in 
the air as any ordinary birds ; in fact, those I have 
mentioned, and such diving- ducks as Golden- eye 
and Mergansers, are notoriously very wary and 
alert birds. Penguins, however, are suspected of 
being short-sighted when out of water. 

The powers of night vision which Owls and 
Nightjars possess, also, do not seem to interfere 
with their vision by day, the idea that they are 
dazzled by daylight being solely due to the fact 
that they are unwilling to move in the day. When 
they are actually on the wing, they fly well enough 
and avoid dangers and obstacles quite successfully, 
and in captivity they show interest in birds flying 
over, and even bask in the sun. In the case of 
Owls, the curious peering movements of the head 
certainly give the idea of bad sight, but these 
gestures are indulged in just as much in the dusk 
of the evening as in daylight, being merely a trick 
of habit ; indeed, something similar is seen in the 
more jerky head-movements of the Hawks. 

The blinking of the upper eyelid in Owls is also 
a very human action which may have helped to 
suggest the idea of blindness in daylight, almost 
all other birds winking with the inner or third 
eyelid, which is drawn so rapidly across the eye. 



230 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

that it does not interfere with the gaze, and is 
hardly noticed hy the onlooker. The Dipper, or 
Water-Ouzel, also blinks the upper eyelid like an 
Owl ; the reason of this seems obscure, since other 
birds that hunt under water do not do so. 

Nor, as far as that goes, do all Owls hunt at 
night ; many, such as the Snow Owl, Hawk- Owl, 
Short-eared Owl, and Burrowing Owl and some 
others, hunting either by day or by night, while 
the Little Owl and Indian Little Owl {Athene 
noctua and A. hrama) come out while it is still 
daylight ; in India I used to notice the latter out 
at about five o'clock in Dehra Dun, while in Cal- 
cutta they did not show themselves till nightfall, 
no doubt owing to the hostility of the numerous 
Crows, for I have seen a homing Crow swoop 
at an Owl which had appeared a little too soon. 

There are also some Nightjars which hunt by 
day, such as the- American Night-Hawk {Chordeiles 
fofetue), which is often abroad high in the air in 
bright sunlight. Woodcocks and Snipe, which are 
usually night-birds, may also feed by day. 

Conversely, many of the birds which have no 
special adaptation for night vision often fly and 
feed at night, such as many members of the Duck 
and Plover tribes, especially the common Lapwing 
and Mandarin Duck, v/hose unusually large eyes 
may, however, be an adaptation to these habits. 
Certainly the last-named bird, in spite of his gay 
colours — such being almost unknown in true noc- 
turnal birds, which are sombre like mammals — is. 



PEAHEN AS ADVENTURESS 231 

judging from its habits in England, quite as noc- 
turnal as some of the Owls, not stirring much 
before noon, while the trampled ground in any 
small enclosure in which specimens are kept shows 
that they run about much at night. 

Most Ducks, when free from human persecution, 
are certainly inclined to diurnal habits to a greater 
extent than their behaviour where sought by sports- 
men would indicate, and M. Rogeron says that 
their night-vision appears to be no better than 
our own, judging from the way in which they will 
fail to see bread thrown to them at dusk. But as 
they generally fly in the open and feed much by 
feeling, this is no great drawback. 

The ordinary day-birds certainly are just about . 
as much at a loss at night as we are, and can avoid 
danger just about as much. Game-birds are gener- 
ally particularly helpless at night, as we see in the 
case of Fowls and Pheasants ; but Peafowl are 
far more alert — I have known a Peahen which had 
escaped from the former trading menagerie at 
Covent Garden remain at large for months, in 
spite of attempts at nocturnal surprises. The 
Quail appears to be even actually semi-nocturnal, 
for in captivity it freely moves about at night ; 
one I kept loose in a room was quite quiescent by 
day. The Lineated Pheasant of Burma {Genn^sus 
lineatus) has also been observed coming out into 
forest clearings on moonlight nights. 

Although Parrots are mostly diurnal birds, there 
are some as nocturnal as Owls, such as the great 



232 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

flightless Owl-Parrot or Kakapo of New Zealand 
(Stringops habroptilus), and the small, flying, but 
otherwise very similar Night-Parrakeet of Australia 
(Geopittacus occidentalis) ; and the sheep-killing 
Kea seems to be active indifferently by day or by 
night, which is one reason why its attacks on the 
sheep are so hard to guard against. 

Lord Tavistock has also noted recently that an 
AustraHan Black Cockatoo which he had flying 
loose about the park at Woburn was often on the 
wing after dark, though of course mere flying after 
dark does not necessarily indicate nocturnal habits, 
as so many migratory day-birds fly at night. The 
New Zealand flightless Rails or Wekas (Pcydromus) 
are active by night as well as by day, and ordinary 
Rails are great night-fliers. Swifts are said often 
in hot weather to soar up and stay aloft all night. 

Herons often move and feed either by day or 
night, and Bitterns and Night-Herons {Nycticorax) 
are true nocturnal birds ; I noticed, however, that 
in our colony of the common Night-Heron {N, 
griseus) at Calcutta, the birds did not seem to sleep 
much during the day ; but the same thing can 
be said of most Owls, only the Barn-Owls being 
generally really asleep in the daytime, if one may 
judge from their behaviour in captivity. Petrels 
are nocturnal at their breeding-places, probably 
from fear of Gulls and Crows, for out at sea one 
sees them flying freely by day in the hottest sun ; I 
have even seen a Storm-Petrel and a Clouded Yellow 
butterfly flying within a few yards of each other. 



RECOGNITION OF COLOURS 233 

Just as Macgillivray suggested the Sparrow-Hawk 
was short-sighted, so Professor Newton, in his 
" Dictionary of Birds," remarks, with reference to 
the easy-going way in which the Hedge-Sparrow 
accepts an aUen egg, that for all we know to the 
contrary it may be colour-blind ; and within the 
last few years, a fancier writing to the Feathered 
World about Homing Pigeons has said that though 
they can distinguish black from white, this is not, 
the case with colours. 

The possibility of some birds not seeing as we 
do must therefore be borne in mind, but as regards 
the class as a whole the general evidence certainly 
tends to bear out the commonly accepted idea that 
their vision for colour is the same as our own. 
This is shown in several ways ; for instance, they 
recognize colour in other birds, and display either 
friendship or hostility in consequence, according 
to whether they are at the time in need of com- 
panionship or in a position to feel jealousy. Birds 
which are normally spiteful, for instance, are likely 
to attack a species which bear colours reminiscent 
of their own ; thus Jenner Weir told Darwin of 
a case in which a Robin in an aviary killed a red- 
breasted Crossbill and injured a Goldfinch ; and 
an American Indigo-bird {Cyanosfiza cyanea) at- 
tacked a Nonpareil (C ciris), which has a blue 
head, and nearly scalped it. I have myself seen a 
mated Blue Australian Wren {Malurus cyaneus) in 
one of the Zoo aviaries furiously pursue a cock 
Yellow- winged Blue Sugar-bird {Ccereba cyanea). 



234 ^IRD BEHAVIOUR 

which it certainly would have hunted to death had 
not the keeper removed it ; and the Green Cardinal 
{Guhernatrix cristatd) has a bad name among 
fanciers for spitefulness to birds of similar colours. 

I have above commented (Chapter V) on the 
alarm shown hy birds at the sight of young Cuckoos, 
though it may well be pleaded that as the 
pattern is the striking point here, the evidence is 
not necessarily in favour of colour- vision ; nor 
need colour- vision to be postulated to account for 
terror which the mixed birds in the Western 
Aviary at the Zoo have shown in my presence at 
the Grey Touracou {Schizorhis concolor), or the 
Parrots in the large Parrot Aviary at the dark-slate 
Vasa Parrot (Coracopsis vasa), both birds of colora- 
tion which, although uniform, is met with in some 
birds of prey. 

I have witnessed sympathetic attraction of 
colour, or at any rate markings, when in Calcutta 
I turned a specimen of the Silver- eared Mesia 
(Mesia argentauris) into a large flight-cage with a 
mixed collection, and saw that it at first associated 
with the Black-capped Sibia (Malacias capistratis) 
and White- eared Bulbul (Molpastes leucotis), before 
finding out its really near relative, the Pekin Robin. 

The House-Crows in Calcutta used to get very 
excited when they saw a live or dead bird handled 
which showed much black or dark colour, using 
the same cries and gestures as they employed when 
seeing one of their own kind handled ; I have 
seen this when the subject was a Muscovy Duck, a 



MISPLACED GENEROSITY 235 

cock Amherst Pheasant, and even a Drongo- Shrike, 
the sworn enemy of Crows. Here there is a case 
of sympathy aroused by colour, but as in the above 
case, no proof of perception of anything but Hght 
and dark shades. 

The old cock- fighters used to object to a hen- 
feathered cock in the pit, owing to the fact that 
the opponent of such a bird was likely to mistake 
it for a hen, and so allow it an advantage while 
courting it ; this might argue a perception of colour 
on the part of the Fowls, as the distinctive orna- 
ments of the cock — large comb, long hackles and 
sickles — were shorn before the fight, so that only 
the colour would be left to differentiate between 
the sexes. But it must be remembered that the 
pattern of cocks and hens is also generally very 
different, the upper and under surfaces of the 
former sex presenting marked differences in all 
except uniformly coloured varieties, which were 
rather rare in the pit game-fowl. 

The preying relations of birds to warningly 
coloured insects, to which I devoted much attention 
in a long series of experiments made during my 
residence in India, and pubHshed in the Journal 
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal^ showed, in my 
opinion, distinct colour-perceptions in the species 
I employed for experiment, since these generally 
preferred more plainly coloured butterflies to the 
" warningly coloured " Danaids (Danais chrysippus, 
genutia, and limniace, and Euplcea core)^ and the 
Still more striking *' warningly coloured " white 



236 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

Delias eucharis and swallow-tail Pafilio aristolochi^, 
and of these only the two first species of Danais 
mentioned were at all like each other in colour, 
though I must admit that they could all have been 
distinguished by pattern also. 

The common Babblers I worked with appeared 
to be deceived by the resemblance of the female 
Nefheronia hippia to Danais limniace, though this 
is not very exact ; and two species of Drongo 
Shrike by the resemblance between the swallow- 
tail above mentioned and the mimicking form of 
another species (P. demoleus) which is extraordinarily 
like the very unpalatable aristolochice except in 
having the abdomen black like most of the vdngs. 
instead of scarlet like the spots on the hinder pair 
of these, a distinction which was not so conspicuous 
in life as it sounds in print. The intelligent little 
Pekin Robin, however, was not to be deceived by 
this very close mimic, but it was taken in by the 
extraordinarily perfect resemblance of the female 
Hypolimnas misippus to Danais chrysippus^ a re- 
semblance which is one of the " show horses " of 
the theory of warning coloration and mimicry, 
and usually deceives human entomologists if un- 
prepared for it. 

Speaking of birds' mistakes, I once saw a very 
amusing one made by a cock Sparrow in Calcutta, 
which flew down and picked up what he evidently 
mistook for a beetle, the creature really being a 
very small specimen of the local toad {Bufo melano- 
stictus) ; and from the movements of his bill after 



ONE EXPERIENCE ENOUGH 237 

he had, immediately, dropped it, he certainly 
would have " pulled a face " had his features 
admitted of it. Such an instance enables one to 
see how very advantageous the acquisition of " warn- 
ing colours " might be to a nauseous animal, saving 
it from some experimental tasting ; but unfortu- 
nately for the theory, toads, and several other 
animals with repellent attributes, have been singu- 
larly unsuccessful in evolving such patterns. 

The merepossession of a striking pattern of thecon- 
ventional "warning" type does not prevent experi- 
mental tasting by novices ; my birds often tried an 
insect they afterwards refused, and a very interesting 
case of this occurred with a Starling (Sturnus vulgaris 
menzbieri), which is only a winter migrant to 
India, and probably knows little of the taste of 
Indian butterflies. I offered this bird one of the 
black- and- scarlet swallow-tails above-mentioned, 
which was immediately gulped whole with charac- 
teristic Starling greediness. But next day another 
was not even touched, at which I was not surprised, 
as this butterfly is so objectionable to birds that 
often they will not even kill it. 

So the lesson was well learnt, and such lessons 
may be long remembered ; to a Starling I kept in 
England, which, when I bought it, had been kept 
for months in close captivity, and had had no chance 
of seeing caterpillars, I offered those of the bufl-tip 
moth {Pygara bucephala), well known to be un- 
palatable to birds, and distinguished by a striking 
black- and-yellow chequered coloration ; the bird 



238 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

simply turned them over with its bill in search of 
something better beneath, as if they had been so 
many ends of string or bits of stick, while when I 
had offered it a much larger green caterpillar 
on a twig it ravenously tore it from its hold and 
devoured it. 

This experiment, by the way, wants repeating 
under circumstances fairer to the caterpillar, though 
as a matter of fact I was not trying to find out if 
the bird would miss the insect ov^ing to its protective 
coloration, as I have once seen a green lizard do. 
That is to say, if the power of a bird to see through 
a protective disguise is to be tested, the insects 
should be in situ beforehand in a place to which 
the bird is admitted without having been allowed 
to see the preparations and so have its expectations 
raised. Until it is experimentally proved that 
birds overlook insects of protective appearance in 
their natural environment, we are not justified in 
saying that such appearance is of any survival 
value as far as feathered enemies are concerned. 

In the case of birds of prey there happens to be 
some evidence of the value of protective resemblance; 
a tame Peregrine Falcon flown at a Houbara Bus- 
tard (Houbara undulata) has been seen, when the 
quarry had settled and squatted, to alight and 
search all round on foot without success, and 
Lloyd, an excellent observer, says in his " Wild 
Sports in Sweden " that the Swedes when trapping 
for Hawks use a light Fowl, Pigeon, or what not 
for bait in ordinary weather, but a dark one if 



NO COLOUR-LINE OBSERVED 239 

snow is on the ground. Moreover,Mr. J. G. Millais 
in his " Breath from the Veldt " describes how 
the Bateleur Eagle {Helo tarsus ecaudatus) often 
captures prey owing to its habit of scanning the 
ground behind as well as before it as it soars, other 
Eagles passing straight on and missing prey which 
has squatted on their approach, only to get up and 
move directly they have passed. 

In all these cases, however, we must remember 
that immobility may be a more important factor 
than colour. With regard to the fruit food of 
birds, it is to be noted that they eat red currants 
sooner than the white variety of that fruit, but 
colour may not decide this. 

Whatever attention birds pay to the colour and 
pattern of their prey or foes, they seem singularly 
inattentive to it as regards recognizing their own 
racial affinities, for the theory of recognition-marks, 
which supposes that species of birds which are 
closely alike except for colour and pattern are 
aided in selecting partners by such differences, 
is not borne out by facts. Whenever the difference 
between two forms is so slight that colour, not 
structure or note, is the only distinction, the birds 
themselves disregard it, no matter how glaring the 
difference may be. 

This is best known in the case of the Hooded 
Crow and Carrion Crow {Corvus comix and C. cor one) 
in the case of our own fauna ; these birds seldom 
breed in the same district, but when they do they 
frequently cross, and the same is the case with these 



240 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

species where they meet in their breeding-range 
outside Britain, as in Central Siberia. Here also 
our Goldfinch breeds and interbreeds with the 
Grey-headed Goldfinch of the Himalayas (Carduelis 
caniceps), a bird provided with excellent recognition 
marks. Actual specimens illustrating these points 
can be seen in the Entrance Hall at the South 
Kensington Museum. 

American naturalists will recall the case of the 
Red-shafted and Yellow-shafted Flickers {ColapUs 
cafer and C. auratus), two inter-breeding Wood- 
peckers also well distinguished by hues and patterns, 
and Anglo-Indians that of the Indian and Burmese 
Rollers or *^ Blue-jays " {Coracias indica and C 
affinis)^ the latter much darker than the former, and 
devoid of its conspicuous terminal tail-bar, yet 
producing numerous intergrades, while the pure 
forms, as in the case of the Crows, have actually 
been seen paired up together. 

Many similar cases might be cited ; in fact, just 
where " recognition-marks" might be expected to be 
of service, there they uniformly prove inoperative 
to segregate species — as might indeed have been 
expected when we see our variable domestic birds 
infallibly recognize their own species in spite of 
abnormalities in colour. 

Neither does the study of the courtship of birds 
exhibiting colour-variations encourage the idea of 
preference for a particular type of colour. Sir 
Ralph Heron recorded, nearly a century ago, how 
all his Peahens fell in love with a pied Peacock, and 



DISFIGUREMENT NO BAR 241 

Mr. D. Dewar has observed that white Peacocks 
in the Lahore Zoo had superior charms to the 
coloured birds ; while I have seen London park 
Mallard Ducks not only pair with all-white, grey- 
breasted, and rufous-flanked drakes in preference 
to the typical male in its full beauty of colouring, 
but in one case recently even with a Spotted-bill 
Drake {Anas pcscilorhyncha), which has no distinctive 
male plumage at all. M. Rogeron also says that this 
Indian species, the African Yellow-bill (A. undulata) 
and Australian Wild Duck {A. super ciliosa), none 
of which have any distinct sex-coloration, never- 
theless interbreed with Mallard as if all were of 
one species. 

Recently I saw at Kew a Mandarin Drake whose 
left eye had been destroyed, and whose face on that 
side was abnormally white, paired with a fine 
unpinioned female, in spite of the presence of 
perfect drakes, one at least unpinioned, which I 
saw her charge with tail wagging defiantly, instead 
of inciting her mate to do it, as is commonly done 
by this most affectionate and selective species. 
Another bird at the Zoo with misplaced wing, spoil- 
ing his colour-scheme entirely, also has had a mate 
for years, though Mandarin Ducks, like Mallard, will 
tolerate bigamy rather than take to a drake they 
dislike. I have, however, seen a case in the Calcutta 
Zoo in which a Mandarin Drake of superior plumage 
was preferred by the ducks to others, though these 
were not positively defective ; and I have found also 
in Calcutta a Linnet hen prefer a lame male with a 
16 



242 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

richer- coloured breast to a poorer-hued but per« 
feet bird, and a hen Avadavat (Estrelda amandava) 
prefer in two cases a bright to a duller-coloured 
male. 

If birds have the aesthetic sense with which 
Darwin credited them, they may, like us, think 
more of small differences than large ones ; golden 
hair is generally admired by man, but no good 
judge would put it, as a point of beauty, above 
well- chiselled features, though it catches the eye 
more at first. As against the possibility of birds 
generally being colour-blind, we may perhaps set 
the preference of the Australian Satin Bower-bird 
{Ptilonorhynchus holosericeus) for blue when choosing 
decorations for its bower, and the liking of some 
Weaver-birds for green and yellow wool when given 
this substance to amuse themselves with in a cage. 
It will be noted that yellow is a common colour 
among Weavers, and that the eyes of the above- 
mentioned Bower-bird are blue, a very rare colour 
in live birds' eyes, though taxidermists are fond of it 
in glass ones ! 

Before leaving the subject of the sense of sight 
in birds, attention must be drawn to its extra- 
ordinary acuteness in Humming-birds, which, as I 
have been able to observe in the case of captive 
birds, appear to be able to see glass ; at any rate 
they do not fly against it as other birds constantly do. 

The sense of smell in birds seems to be little 
developed as a rule, not more than in ourselves, at 
all events judging by their behaviour. 



DEVELOPMENT OF SCENT 243 

The Apteryxes, however, are exceptions, as these 
birds, which unhke all others have the nostrils at 
the tip of the beak, nose their way about like a 
beast, even sniffing audibly. Some sportsmen also 
are of opinion that wildfowl have a keen scent, and 
should be approached accordingly with due regard 
to the direction of the wind, as in stalking deer and 
other similar animals ; and decoymen used to burn 
a turf before their mouths when working a decoy, 
so as to hide the human scent. St. John also 
recorded that his domesticated wild Ducks scented 
out a heap of diseased potatoes which had been 
well covered with earth. On the other hand, 
Mr. Millais found that wild Geese approached 
quite near him when concealed in a pit, so as to 
suggest they had no particular power of scent. 

The sense may be well developed in the Crows, 
for M. Rogeron says a pet Jackdaw of his could 
distinguish between salt and powdered sugar, 
which nevertheless were alike to the eye, taking 
only a few grains of the one substance and a big 
beakful of the other, and Dickens describes how his 
second tame Raven disinterred the halfpence and 
bits of cheese his predecessor had buried in the 
garden. Pigeons also used at any rate to be credited 
by fanciers with liking the smell of aniseed, which 
was supposed to attach them to a cote. 

The only case in which I myself have seen any- 
thing which suggested scenting power in a bird 
was that of a Pied Hornbill {Anthracoceros mala- 
baricus) I kept in India, which, when offered 



244 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

butterflies, refused the Danaids after pinching 
them with the tip of the bill, and treated a cigar-end 
in the same way. The latter substance might have 
been rejected by touch, but in the case of the 
insects, as the bird ate other butterflies, it seems only 
natural to conclude that it detected an objectionable 
scent by means of the posterior nares ; taste was 
out of the question, as the tongue in the Hornbills 
is so very short, and the beak, for some inches from 
the tip, as dry and horny inside as out. 

With regard to the very birds in which one 
would expect scenting powers to be particularly 
well developed, the Vultures, all the evidence is 
against this, those who have experience unanimously 
declaring that a carcase if well covered over is not 
detected by them ; and in Darwin's classical experi- 
ment with a hungry Condor the bird did not 
appreciate the nature of the contents of a paper 
parcel of fresh meat till he touched it with his 
beak, in which close proximity the odour of raw 
flesh would no doubt be detected by a human nose. 

In spite of the less elaborate structure of the 
internal ear, and of the absence of an external one 
altogether, there is no doubt that the hearing of 
birds is at least as good as our own, and in many 
cases possibly even better. This is particularly 
remarkable, because not only is the outer ear or 
auricle wanting, but the ear-hole itself is generally 
overhung by a dense patch of short and very firmly 
rooted feathers, the ear-coverts, which sometimes 
remain when the rest of the head is naked, as in the 



GEESE AS NIGHT-WATCHMEN 245 

Sarus and Australian Cranes {Antigone collaris and 
A, australasiana). In most bald birds, however, 
the ear-hole is exposed, as in the Ostrich and 
Turkey, and so it is, curiously enough, in an 
Australian bird with otherwise feathered head, 
the Mallee-hen (Leipoa ocellata). 

The perfection of birds' hearing may be accur- 
ately judged of by the performances of the various 
talking and mimicking birds, such as Parrots and 
Mynahs, whose imitation of their models is often 
absolutely perfect ; and the susceptibility to sound of 
species which have not these vocal gifts is well known. 

It is said that the wild Turkey, when being 
lured within shot by an imitation of the hen's call, 
will at once detect a false note, and be shy for the 
rest of the season ; and the Canadian Goose dis- 
tinguishes at once, according to Audubon, between 
man-made sounds and the natural ones of the 
woods and wilds, the crack of a dry stick under a 
deer's hoof being discriminated from its breakage 
by a human foot, and the accidental slap of a 
paddle against a canoe-side from the flop of a 
Turtle taking to the water. 

Every one also is familiar with the Roman Geese 
whose vigilance is said to have saved the Capitol ; 
and whatever the historical value of the human 
part of that portion of Romah history, no goose- 
breeder, says Fowler, as quoted in Wright's " Book 
of Poultry," would at all doubt it, his own experi- 
ence corroborating it in every essential point. The 
Roman poet's attribution of greater sagacity to 



246 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

Geese than to Dogs is also borne out by a corre- 
spondent of Hewitt's quoted in the same work, 
who characterized Spanish (Chinese) Geese and 
Guinea-Fowls, kept in a lonely place, as the best 
watch- dogs in the neighbourhood, the actual dogs 
themselves generally only giving the second warning, 
so that it was thought they themselves relied on 
the birds. The Peacock is also not inferior to the 
Guinea-Fowl in wariness at night, and probably 
also rehes on hearing ; a few Pea- fowl in game- 
coverts might prove an excellent and inexpensive 
guard against poachers. 

It has recently been noted in the press, too, 
that Parrots kept in fortresses and on the Eiffel 
Tower during the war gave warning of approaching 
aeroplanes when they could not possibly have 
seen them, and two writers, one who kept a Sulphur- 
crested Cockatoo and the other a Ring-necked 
Parrakeet, have recorded, the former in " Notes on 
Cage-birds " and the latter in the Avicultural 
Magazine^ that the birds became aware of their 
masters' arrival at home at a distance at which any 
hearing seemed impossible. Even the Kiwi will 
jump if one claps one's hands suddenly close to it 
at night, though the waving of a white handkerchief 
fails to impress its dull sight. 

The sense of hearing is much more important 
in determining the relations of birds to each 
other than is generally supposed, and appears to 
be more important than sight. Thus, the freely 
interbreeding species which have been above 



RECOGNITION OF RELATIVES 247 

commented on resemble each other in voice, even 
when this differs greatly in the two sexes, as in the 
Ducks of the genus Anas mentioned, and birds at 
once recognize and respond to a sufficiently accurate 
reproduction of their call, as all field-naturalists 
are well aware. Thus, I have made both a wild 
jungle-cock and tame roosters answer me, though 
I am unable to imitate more delicate notes, and 
have made wild Duck circle round and lower their 
flight by quacking to them. People who do not 
want vicious cocks, by the way, should carefully 
refrain from mocking their birds thus, as when the 
fowl's brain has grasped the location of the chal- 
lenge in the human, he will attack, and remain 
permanently spiteful, in which case he is dangerous 
to small children. 

Different species — too far apart to readily inter- 
breed—will associate if the note is similar, as in the 
case of the Whistling Tree-Ducks (Pendrocycnd)^ 
when specimens find themselves isolated in cap- 
tivity, different though they may be in colour. 
But allied species have a wonderful knack of know- 
ing each other by sight, even if colour and voice 
are both different ; thus, the Mandarin and Caro- 
lina drakes not only occasionally make love to each 
other's females, which is not surprising, as these 
are so much alike that one generally has to look at 
them twice to see which is which, but the females 
will reciprocate, although the two male birds are 
very distinct both in coloration, decorative plumage, 
and voice. 



248 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

I was much amused on a most miserable Sunday 
one January to see a very agitated Mandarin Duck 
which had got left out in the pairing which was 
going on despite the cold rain, establishing an 
understanding with an equally forlorn Carolina 
drake, in spite of differences of language. Her 
gestures made it clear to him that she wanted him 
to drive off Mandarin drakes who happened to 
pass, and I saw him get two duckings from these 
while I watched, although she was quite ready her- 
self to follow any mated Mandarin till he turned to 
drive her off. 

The note of the male of her species certainly 
seems to have a very potent effect on the hen at 
times ; twice I have seen the common Starling fly 
to her mate when singing, and pairing take place, 
the only occasions on which I have observed this, 
and possibly the " instrumental music " practised 
by some birds may have charms to soothe the 
feminine breast. On the only occasion on which I 
ever saw the pairing of the Green Peafowl (Pavo 
muticus), the hen signified her assent just after 
he had rustled his train for the second time, 
although on the first rustling, after she had 
apparently been admiring his display vnth unusual 
attention, she slipped round behind him, only to 
come forward again. 

At such times both this and the common Peafowl 
utter a long-drawn and peculiarly shrill scream, 
quite unHke their usual call, and this may have its 
effect on the hen. I have also seen the common 



VANDALISM IN SONG-BIRDS 249 

Collared Dove stoop to her mate when he was 
cooing, and the House-Mynah in India similarly 
respond to the chattering song and bowing move- 
ments of the male, though I have also seen her turn 
on him for displaying, like the hen Sparrow. 

In spite of their powers of hearing being similar 
in character to our own, and their voices often 
pleasing us, birds have no taste in music, as we 
understand it, though we must also remember that 
savage or primitive music does not appeal to us, 
nor do we as adults enjoy the horrible noises, such 
as slate-pencils " scrooped " on slates, which seem 
to please children. 

But it is at least curious that birds are so wilfully 
perverse, as we should call it, in their selection of 
sounds to respond to and imitate ; a Canary can 
be got to sing in answer to the working of a sewing- 
machine or the fizzling of a frying-pan, and will 
often spoil its song by the interpolation of a Spar- 
row's chatter ; while the various mocking species 
of birds, such as the true Mocking-bird of North 
America (Mimus polyglottus) and the Shama of 
India (Cittocincla macrura) persistently degrade their 
beautiful songs by imitating harsh cries. I have 
also heard the Indian Orange-headed Ground- 
Thrush {Geocichla citrina), a species which combines 
the excellences of the Song-Thrush and Blackbird, 
irritatingly repeat a most trivial and monotonous 
note it had picked up in the Zoo aviaries. 

Some birds seem to be able to hear notes in- 
audible to us ; thus, the Starling when singing 



250 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

frequently opens and shuts its bill without pro- 
ducing a sound that I can hear, at any rate, but no 
doubt the hen hears it ; and some of the little 
Eastern Weaver-Finches known as Nuns or Manni- 
pais (Munia), go through all the gestures of singing 
while emitting scarcely any noise audible to us 
but a faint mew at the finish. As the hens listen 
very attentively, they no doubt can hear, and 
evidently like the music, such as it is, though even 
to them it cannot sound very loud, judging from 
their close attention. 

The sense of touch in birds is certainly not 
facilitated by their structure — generally horny 
beaks and scale-cased feet, and feather-covered 
body ; but it is reasonably acute nevertheless. In 
Ducks, in which the beak is covered, except at the 
tip and edges, vvdth skin instead of horn, it is no 
doubt more acute than in most, and the common 
Sheldrake has the expanded edges of the beak 
near the tip so soft that it can fairly be said to 
have lips, while in the AustraHan Pink- eyed Duck 
{Malacorhynchus memhranaceus) these lips are quite 
large and hang down like the flews of a hound, 
so that the beak should have much tactile sensi- 
bility. 

In Snipe and Woodcock, also, the bill is quite 
soft at the tip, and these birds, like Ducks, feed by 
feeling in mud ; but hard-billed waders like Storks 
also grope in mud with much success, and many 
of these birds also feel in the mud with their feet, 
though this, like the scratching action often per- 



THE PROBLEM OF WHISKERS 251 

formed by Ducks in the water, has no doubt for 
its primary object the loosening of the bottom to 
stir up lurking prey. 

The cere, or soft skin at the base of the beak in 
Parrots, birds of prey, and Pigeons, may have some 
tactile value, preventing these birds from plunging 
the beak over the nostrils in the soft food, flesh 
or fruit, on which so many of these birds subsist ; 
at any rate, the only other groups in which the 
beak has a soft covering are the Ducks and Flamin- 
goes, in which only the end and edges, as has been 
said, are horny, and these are habitually mud- 
feeders, and seek food by feeling. The soft flanges 
or lips, at the base of the bill in the nestlings of 
Passerines, Hoopoes, and Woodpeckers, are also 
sensitive to touch, and no doubt aid the young 
" yellow- beak " to perceive the food the parents 
offer it ; but they are not found in other young 
birds even of the helpless kinds, and never in active 
chicks. 

Whiskers like those of many mammals are found 
round the face and base of the bill in the Apteryx 
or Kiwi, so beast-Hke in its behaviour, and pre- 
sumably they may serve as feeling- organs in the 
same way ; but it is less easy to divine the use of 
the bristles found at the sides of the beak, and 
often where it joins the forehead, in many birds 
which feed on flying insects, and specially conspicu- 
ous in the Nightjars and Flycatchers. They may act 
as guides for the snap of the beak, but they are 
absent in many birds of somewhat similar habits 



252 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

to those which possess them ; for instance, the 
Nightjars of the genus C hordeiles ha.ve none, nor 
do the Swallows or Swallow- Shrikes exhibit them. 
Yet they are particularly well developed in the 
Barbets of the genus Xantholcema, of which the 
Coppersmith {X, hcematoce^phald) is a conspicuous 
example well known to Anglo-Indians, and these 
are chiefly fruitarians, while the more omnivorous 
Barbets of South America have bristleless mouths. 

The feet of birds seem fairly sensitive to pain — 
at any rate they nurse a hurt foot by holding it 
up ; but generally speaking they are, like the lower 
animals generally, very indifferent to injury. Ducks, 
for instance, after being pinioned and released into 
the water, do not look at the mutilated member, 
but throw water over themselves as usual after 
being handled, and may even begin feeding-^-in the 
case of Tree-Ducks, which are far less nervous than 
Ducks generally. 

I do not, however, think this justifies the opera- 
tion, as I consider mutilating a bird for life to save 
the trouble and supervision required to clip its wing 
annually is slovenly management, and no person 
who will not take trouble over them is justified in 
keeping birds at all, especially as the birds which 
are kept under restraint by pinioning them are 
exactly those which are not maintained for practical 
purposes ; the operation would be pardonable if 
needed to be applied to poultry, for instance. 

With regard to the taste-perceptions of birds, 
there are some puzzling problems. They often 



GUSTATORY SENSIBILITY 253 

are able to determine the taste of an insect, for 
instance, by taking it up in the tip of their beak, 
but sometimes, as in the case of the Starhng above 
quoted, do not seem to know whether they will 
like such an object or not till they have actually 
swallowed it ; in this case the sensation, satis- 
factory or otherwise, must be determined by the 
stomach. I have seen a toad swallowed and rejected 
by two large Gulls in succession, and then tried 
by a third, which after retaining it a while, threw 
it up and looked at it, but swallowed it again on 
seeing another coming to investigate, and retained 
it as long as I watched. 

Here the process of killing and swallowing by the 
first experimenters had evidently eliminated most of 
the toad's poisonous skin-secretion, but left a dis- 
tinct power of causing disturbance of a kind; and 
after all we ourselves do not know in the case of 
many articles of food if they will " agree with us " 
till after eating. Birds after tasting something they 
dislike will often vigorously wipe their beaks, and 
this is a good sign to follow, if it be borne in mind 
that wiping the beak may occur under other cir- 
cumstances. 

In the case of dry grain, etc., which is swallowed 
whole, as by Pigeons and Game-birds, all pleasurable 
sensation must of course be stomachic, and this 
must be great to induce birds to swallow with 
pleasure such substances as acorns, and monkey- 
nuts in the husk, so beloved by Wood-Pigeons. 
The birds in this case seem to come at an idea of 



254 SIRI) BEHAVIOUR • 

the edibility of an object by weighing it in their 
beaks, and are often slow in taking to a new food, 
as when beans are given to Pigeons, and white peas 
to Fowls. 

Generally speaking, the tastes of birds are not 
so very unlike our own, having regard to the 
immense variety of human tastes ; the Peregrine 
Falcon, for instance, though it will eat Rooks and 
Gulls, much prefers Ducks, Grouse, and Pigeons ; 
and I found the whitebeam berries which the birds 
so much appreciated had a mealy, satisfying taste, 
like mashed potatoes— the sort of thing one does 
not get tired of. Yet on the other hand, birds 
eagerly eat the sour, bitter berries of the mountain- 
ash, though even these are made by some people 
into jelly. 

Both wild and captive birds readily take to many 
of the standard articles of human food, even though 
not suffering actual hunger, as every one may see 
in the fondness for bread they so often exhibit ; 
sugar, too, is often greatly relished ; I have seen 
Sparrows eat it in the powdered state in my rooms 
in Calcutta, and carry it off by the lump at the 
Crystal Palace. 

A more curious taste is that for milk, which 
appeals to a great variety of birds, and makes one 
wonder if the Nightjar's classical reputation as a 
goat-sucker, and the Zulu rendering of its cry 
" Milk for your people," is such a fable after all, its 
mouth certainly being big enough to perform the 
feat! 



CHAPTER IX 

The emotions of birds — ^Mentality higher than is supposed, but 
variable according to species or groups — Strong- and weak- 
minded birds — Intelligence and stupidity — ^The limitations 
of instinct — Expression of the emotions and its relation to 
courting displays — Love and sociability — Hatred and re- 
venge — ^The police instinct — ^Monogamy, polygamy, and 
polyandry — ^The problem of preferential mating. 

The facts detailed in the last chapter seem to 
indicate that most birds have much the same 
sense-facilities for acquiring a knowledge of the 
outside world that we ourselves possess, and so it 
is not surprising that they are, as far as we can 
make out at present, as much like us in mind and 
emotions as we can expect any of the lower animals 
to be. One might in fact expect them in some 
respects to be more human-minded than many- 
mammals, owing to their erect position in all cases, 
frequent habit of perching, and general power of 
flight — all tending to give them a wider outlook 
than quadrupeds — in addition to the habit of 
getting information from sight and hearing as 
we do, and not, like most of the lower mammals, 
thinking through their noses and thus getting an 
entirely different set of impressions to guide their 
conduct. 

2SS 



2S6 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

These similarities to us seem quite sufficient to 
outweigh what ought to be the handicap of a non- 
convoluted brain ; and in any case, too much 
stress may be laid on these anatomical characters. 
Rodents have non-convoluted brains, but no one 
would accuse a rat of want of intelligence on that 
account, and similarly among birds there are 
plenty of species in many different groups that 
can compare in intellectual power with almost any 
of the mammals other than man. They all of 
course stop short of human ability just where the 
higher beasts do — when the power of speech is 
needed to communicate impressions. 

In observing the habits of the young chimpanzees 
which our most enterprising dealer, Mr. J. D. 
Hamlyn, imports and hands over to his talented 
wife to receive the rudiments of a human education, 
I have been impressed with the fact that these apes 
are quite as human as children, at least till the age 
at which a child should acquire speech ; but in one 
which was kept in the Hamlyn establishment for 
two years it seemed to me that there was no ten- 
dency to further progress, as there would have been 
in a child, and this one instance strikes me as 
more valuable than many observations on apes made 
to lead the dull monotonous life to which they are 
condemned in public collections. 

In estimating the intelligence of birds, we are 
apt to be deceived by not understanding their 
expressions of feeling, which are, except in the case 
of Owls, which have faces of a recognizably similar 



OBSERVANT WOOD-PIGEONS 257 

type to our own, not at first easy to interpret. 
Thus, it is difficult to see in many cases if a bird 
is observing anything or not ; every one must have 
wondered at the apparent unobservance of common 
Pigeons when a cat is stalking them, until their 
flight at the right moment shows that they had 
properly estimated the danger and were awake to 
it all the time. 

Woodpigeons, too, with an expression of stu- 
pidity hardly equalled by any other creature, have 
yet '' sized up " the habits of man in a most scien- 
tific way ; petted as they are in London, they will 
fly away from a single individual walking through a 
park in which they will settle on the hands of 
a person where others are about, showing that they 
have grasped the fact that men when in company 
do not assault Pigeons, though a single individual 
may be dangerous by owning a gun, for instance. 

The apparently unseeing stare of so many birds 
is no doubt the reason why they may often falsely 
appear to us to be indifferent to the display of the 
other sex, though there is also plenty of proof that 
the said display may really leave them unmoved 
or even cause anger ; thus, I have often seen the 
hen Sparrow and in one case even the hen of the 
beautiful Orange Bishop Finch {Pyromelana jran- 
ciscana) turn savagely on the male as he was showing 
off before her. Similarly, one very likely under- 
rates the scenting powers of birds because they do 
not sniff, having rigid-edged nostrils, but they no 
doubt often detect odours nevertheless. 
17 



2S8 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

We must always remember that the mind of 
birds is more like that of a young child or of a 
savage than of an adult of a civilized race of men, 
and this will help us to understand their actions 
in many difficult cases. The apparent indifference 
of birds to courting displays, for instance, may be 
very like the behaviour of small children to a 
stranger who takes notice of them ; children are 
often in such a case apparently quite unconcerned, 
but their friendliness on the next occasion, or 
what one is told by their parents, will generally 
show that they appreciated advances which they 
seemed to ignore at the time — a fact I have often 
been witness of, as I have the honour to be among 
those in whom children instinctively place con- 
fidence. 

When a bird happens to have the same mode of 
expression as a mammal, the resemblance in its 
actions is often startlingly close ; thus, for instance, 
it is well known that beasts have a habit — which 
appears generally considered extremely touching, 
but is to me pecuHarly nasty — of licking their 
friends. Birds do not generally do this, not be- 
cause they are cold-natured, but because it is not 
generally their custom to lick anybody or anything ; 
but, to my great interest, a specimen of the Black 
Lory (Chalcopsittacus ater), the tamest of Parrots 
and one of a honey-Hcking group, licked my hand 
as soon as I put it near the cage on our first intro- 
duction at Mr. Ezra's London flat ; and a chained 
specimen whose acquaintance I made years before 



ANSERINE INTELLIGENCE 259 

in Calcutta dropped from its swing on to my hand, 
and there lay on its back, and tried, monkey-like, 
to cling to me when I was leaving it. Others who 
have had experience with Parrots will be able 
to recall similar mammalian-like actions ; and they, 
together with Hornbills, Guans, and Emus, are 
certainly as fond of being petted as any cat or dog. 

Geese may display very human attributes ; I 
have seen in India a Chinese gander (the usual 
domestic species there) sitting beside his favourite 
goose which was incubating, with his neck laid 
across her back, a position precisely analogous to 
the embracing arm of a loving man or ape ; and 
from the time of the philosopher Lacydes onwards, 
instances have been recorded of common Geese 
taking a fancy to individuals and following them 
about with the fidelity traditionally associated with 
dogs ; traditionally but not scientifically, because 
if dogs were universally or even usually faithful 
they could not be sold or otherwise change owners. 

The most remarkable case of this that has come 
to my knowledge is recorded by J. T. Smith, who 
says in his '' Book for a Rainy Day " that his mother 
found when at Greenwich in 1766 a Goose whicli 
used to go the rounds with an old woman who sola 
pies and cheesecakes, and cackled at each customer' e 
door, going off to the next house if the words 
" Not to-day " were uttered, and so on till the day's 
business was done. 

In spite of their stupid appearance. Geese are 
well known to be so intelligent that such occur- 



26o BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

rences are not surprising ; Crows, on the other 
hand, both look and are intelligent, as every one 
knows, and I had not been long in India before I 
saw played a trick which was often repeated before 
my eyes afterwards ; the House-Crows would settle 
near a Kite which had alighted on a building with 
a piece of food too heavy to devour on the wing, 
one taking up a position in front and one behind 
it, and the game was then for the Crow in front 
to badger the Kite until a favourable opportunity 
occurred for the confederate in the rear to jerk 
its tail, when of course the booty was snatched by 
the front bird as the infuriated Hawk turned round. 

As the Crows would pull a Kite's tail at any time 
when the Kite was pre- occupied, as when drinking 
or picking up a stick for its nest, it is easy to see 
how the idea suggested itself, but the working out 
of the plan showed intelligence, and the co-opera- 
tion was explained by what I ultimately observed, 
that the Crow which took the post of danger in 
front allowed the other to take best part of the 
spoil, thus showing that in all probability a pair 
worked together, the easiest part of the plan, the 
tail-pulling, being left to the share of the weaker 
sex. I have heard and read of the same tactics 
being used with dogs, but never saw this. 

With a young Kite in its first plumage I have 
even seen a Crow dash in and boldly snatch the 
food from it direct. Only on one occasion did I 
see the wily Crows " bested " by a Kite. This 
bird, no doubt taught by painful experience, had 



THE INTELLECT OF PARROTS 261 

alighted in a strategic position on the corner of a 
flat roof where it could not be assailed from behind ; 
and when two Crows appeared, evidently anxious 
to obtain its booty, the entrails of a fowl, which 
trailed across the roof for a foot or so away from 
it, the Kite gathered up this loose portion under its 
feet, and went on with its meal in a most uncon- 
cerned way, while the disappointed Crows sheered 
off in search of something easier to steal. 

Although one must not attach undue importance 
to their power of imitating our speech, there can 
be no doubt, I think, that Parrots are highly intelli- 
gent birds ; in fact, I can never understand why 
they are not still placed, as they were by some 
naturalists, such as Edward Blyth, quite the greatest 
of ornithologists, at the head of the bird class, 
since they present so many analogies with the 
monkeys amongst mammals. Even the little Bud- 
gerigar, with its Finch-like habits, is a far more in- 
telligent bird than any ordinary Finch, for, once 
its nervousness is overcome, it readily learns tricks, 
much more so, I am told by Mr. J. Harris, who 
makes a speciaHty of training these birds, than the 
Greenfinch, a bird of about the same size, and 
not stupid as Finches go. 

Most people would probably say the common 
grey African Parrot is the most intelligent of birds, 
and, though its natural shyness results in its intelli- 
gence being known generally only to its immediate 
acquaintance, 1 have twice known it do remarkably 
human things. In one case a bird boarded out 



262 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

at a dealer's shop, a good talker in two languages 
I was told, had become independent of the usual 
head-scratching by human fingers, for it would 
scratch its head itself with the swing in its cage, 
grasping this with one foot as it stood on the perch 
below, and moving it backwards and forwards over 
its poll. 

The other bird I was told of when delivering a 
course of lectures at Maidenhead some years ago ; 
this would scratch its head with a piece of stick, 
according to the account given me, and though 
with the usual perversity of the species it refused 
to perform in my presence, it did at any rate 
condescend to take the stick proffered by its owner 
in its foot and hold it a while. 

From my own experience I think I should rate 
the great Salmon-crested Cockatoo of the Moluccas 
{Cacatua moluccensis) as the most intelligent of 
birds ; this will even make use of signs to intimate 
its wishes, for when one approaches a Cockatoo of 
this kind — they are always tame, being presumably 
hand-reared — it will commence stroking its head 
with its foot in an obvious invitation to " scratch 
a poll " which is quite sincere, for I have never 
known one abuse the confidence reposed in its tame- 
ness. 

The only other Parrot I have seen make this 
sign, and that more rarely, is the large Red-and-Blue 
Macaw (Ara chloropUra), and this also is the only 
bird I have seen smiling ; when so doing it extends 
the upper bill straight forwards and draws back 



SIZE AND CHARACTER 263 

tlie corners of the mouth, producing a weirdly ugly 
expression which might easily be mistaken for 
yawning, but is assumed under quite appropriate 
circumstances for a smile, as when the bird is being 
petted and played with by some one whom it 
knows and likes. 

Generally speaking, in birds of the same group 
the larger species will be found more intelligent 
and of more marked character than the smaller, 
though there are numerous exceptions to this ; for 
instance, an aidary of Parrakeets can be kept up 
with much more safety than a collection of Cockatoos 
and Macaws, and in a pond stocked with waterfowl 
it will be found that all species larger than the 
common Wild Duck are not only more tameable 
and intelligent than that bird, but much more 
jealous and vindictive, and apt to pursue their 
quarrels to the death, while the squabblings of the 
smaller species seldom lead to anything serious. 

Pronounced vigour of character is, however, 
also a prerogative of certain special types ; thus 
among Parrots the Conures, though not large, 
are birds of much character, and among Ducks the 
Sheldrakes, though considerably smaller than the 
Geese. Among small birds, too, I have found the 
Pekin Robin {Liothrix luteus) a remarkably intelli- 
gent species, with plenty of presence of mind ; if 
turned out in a garden it will soon find its way 
back to its companions in captivity, if there be any 
of its own species, and displays no fear of the mob- 
bing of the Sparrows, which, to do them justice, are 



264 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

in such cases, according to my experience, actu- 
ated more by curiosity than by malice, as I never 
saw any of the Pekins I turned out in London 
parks hurt by them, even if they happened to be 
in poor condition. 

I even saw one of these birds rob a London 
Sparrow very cleverly ; the Sparrow had carried a 
bit of bread under the bush in which Liothrix was 
perched, when the Chinese bird jabbered at him, 
giving his alarm-note, and the Sparrow fled in 
terror, leaving the bread to be appropriated by 
his rival. Another bird of this kind, placed in an 
aviary in Calcutta, detected and seized a small 
cockroach which lived in a crevice and had baffled 
the other inmates before he had been in the place 
five minutes ; and on a perch having fallen down 
with a great clatter on being shifted, was down 
on the next one investigating the cause of the 
disturbance before the flutter caused thereby 
among the other inmates of the aviary had sub- 
sided. 

Should any one be anxious to investigate system- 
atically the workings of a bird's mind, I should 
strongly recommend this knowing little species, 
which being largely insectivorous has more chance 
of showing versatile intelligence than a seed-eater, 
though some of these are very intelligent, not 
only among Parrots, but among Passerines, such as 
the Redpoll, Sparrow, and Bay a Weaver. 

There are undoubtedly many birds and groups 
of birds whose intelligence is extremely low com- 



AN UNJUST ASPERSION 265 

pared with those I have dealt with ; such birds as 
Bustards, Tinamous, Sand-Grouse, and Pigeons, for 
instance, though often wary, are not what one would 
call bright and clever. It will not do, however, 
to try to estimate a bird's intelligence from its 
morphological status ; for instance. Grebes are 
supposed to be a ^' low " type, but my experience 
of them is that they are very intelligent, far more 
so than any other waterfowl, at any rate in the 
case of the Indian Dabchick, a bird which minutely 
examines everything, and as I proved, knows one 
person from another, even though not fed by any 
one. 

Parker, from anatomical considerations appar- 
ently, saw fit to stigmatize the Rails as a " feeble- 
minded, cowardly group," which they most em- 
phatically are not, when one comes to know them 
intimately. The common Moorhen (Gallinula 
chloropus) is, I should say, an infinitely more coura- 
geous, intelligent, and generally strong-minded 
bird than the wild Duck, though that is a good 
steady-nerved sensible bird as Ducks go. Their be- 
haviour in London well illustrates this, for whereas 
both birds are kindly treated there, and have been 
for many years, the Duck can never overcome the 
timid instinct of hiding its nest, and rarely breeds on 
small ponds ; the Moorhen will often nest in the 
full view of the public, and at the time of writing a 
pair had bred for years on a tiny island in a little 
stone-faced pond in the middle of Goldhawk 
Road in London, within a few yards of an electric 



266 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

tramway, a big public-house, and a picture palace ! 
The Moorhen, evidently, would say with Diomed : 

" Thou dost miscall retire. 
I do not fly ; but advantageous care 
Withdrew me from the odds of multitude." 

In birds of the same group and closely allied 
the same difference can be seen ; the Wood- 
Pigeon, domiciled in London for only a few decades, 
has shown itself much more ready to take advan- 
tage of human friendship than the House-Pigeon, 
which has been a public pet there for probably 
as many centuries. The woodlander is now nesting 
in absurdly low trees, even in those surrounding 
Trafalgar Square, and even more readily alights 
on people's hands to be fed than the other bird 
does. 

Among the Ducks the same thing can be seen; 
I have only once seen the Carolina Duck dive for 
food, when a female thus caught a fish at Kew, 
yet its ally the Mandarin, though less specialized 
as a swimmer, dives quite frequently for food, and 
unlike other surface-feeders, goes under with its 
food when worried by Gulls. 

Observers of Humming-birds sometimes comment 
on the very insect- like behaviour of these tiny 
birds, but in this I fancy they have been misled 
by the minute size and insect-like flight, for as far 
as my observations, which I must admit have been 
limited to a few captive individuals, have gone, I 
cannot see that they show less intelligence than 



MORE BRAINS THAN PLUCK 267 

other very small birds, small species being, generally 
speaking, more childish in their ways than large 
ones ; in fact, the readiness with which Humming- 
birds adapt themselves to captivity is rather a 
proof of high intelligence than otherwise, since 
such adaptability is often found in birds whose 
intelligence is known to be high, like wild Geese, 
which are much more easily tamed than Ducks. 

Here, however, temperament may come in ; the 
Ducks are intensely nervous as a rule, a remarkable 
exception being found in the generalized Tree- 
Ducks, which come in some ways nearer the Geese, 
and are certainly like them in disposition. A 
nervous bird, too, may nevertheless have plenty of 
character and intelligence ; the Pekin Robin, a very 
intelligent bird, as I have said, is frantic in a small 
cage, bold and inquisitive in a large one, while the 
intelligent Sparrow submits to captivity with a 
very bad grace, bearing it worse than many less 
intelligent species. 

Like all the lower animals, birds have distinct 
limitations of instinct, even intelligent species 
constantly failing in adaptation — else they would be 
human ; in the introductory chapter I have spoken 
of the failure of the Sparrow to acquire the knack 
of manipulating its food with its feet, and the 
same may be said of the Starhng, also an intelligent 
and versatile bird ; while the intelligent Parrots, 
except in the case of one species, never think of 
making nests, so common an instinct with less 
gifted birds, a peculiarity which no doubt accounts 



268 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

for the fact that the comparatively very stupid 
Pigeons, with much the same general distribution 
and diet, have nevertheless on the v^hole a voider 
range and greater success in the struggle for exist- 
ence, since they can at any rate construct their own 
cradles, and do not usually depend on holes, found 
or dug out, for a breeding-place, as Parrots do. 

The association between general intelHgence and 
strength of character and the hole-breeding habit is 
often very marked, occurring in Parrots, Starlings, 
Tits, and Sheldrakes, for instance, but as it limits the 
breeding potentialities of birds, it must be regarded 
as either degeneracy or a blind retention of ancestral 
custom, as compared with the nest-constructing 
instinct, and is no doubt favoured by the fitness 
in other directions of the birds which practise it. 
It is probably the great and general development 
of the nest-constructing instinct in the Passerines 
which accounts largely for the success of these 
birds, since in general intelligence and strength 
of constitution they do not seem superior to many 
other groups. 

A very large field of observation is presented by 
the phenomena of expression of emotion in birds, 
and it is intimately related to the study of bird 
courtship ; for it is a very important point to 
notice that the so-called courting pose is often 
exactly that which is assumed under any emotions 
such as anger and even fear, and that it is frequently 
displayed by the hen equally with the cock. 

Thus, to take a well-known instance, the Turkey- 



BLUFF BEFORE FIGHTING 269 

cock displays when about to fight just as when 
showing off to the hen, and she herself may display 
if the cock is slow in making advances, or if she 
meditates an attack. The Ruff displays his frill 
to his rival as well as to the reeve, and even the 
Peacock has been seen to drive a sitting Swan off 
her nest by charging down upon her in the display 
attitude, while I have myself seen a Pea-chick no 
larger than a Partridge suddenly display its little 
tail when alarmed by a cat passing close by it. 
The Muscovy Duck displays when about to pair, 
when meditating warfare or on alarm — on any excite- 
ment, in fact, and the duck is nearly as ready to 
show off as the drake. 

The Swan and Mandarin Duck display magni- 
ficently for the purpose of bluff, but when about 
to pair their movements are quite different and 
less imposing, the Swan in particular flattening 
down its wings, expanding the feathers on the head 
and upper neck, and repeatedly plunging head and 
neck under water ; while among the Tree-Ducks 
there is frequently a marked display after, but not 
before, pairing, both partners executing a step- 
dance in the water with one wing held aloft. 

Generally speaking, the gestures of males and 
females in display are the same, but there are some 
exceptions ; thus, among the typical Ducks — the 
Mallard and its allies — the duck and drake use 
quite different actions, though there is a marked 
exception in the case of the beautiful Falcated or 
Bronze-capped Duck {Eunetta falcata), in which 



270 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

the very soberly coloured females show off simul- 
taneously with, and with the same gestures as, the 
highly decorated drakes, which is more than Man- 
darin Ducks usually do, though they exhibit drake- 
displays occasionally. In a case I noted one winter 
when a pair of Blackbirds were disputing over food, 
I observed both cock and hen running around with 
trailing spread tails, as cock Blackbirds do when 
courting. 

As Darwin has remarked, all individuals of a 
species display in the same way, and he might 
have gone further, and said that the display is 
often a group-character, and common to many 
alHed species ; though, on the other hand, one gets 
sudden differences in this respect between near 
allies at times, just as one does in the case of notes, 
eggs, and colouring and decorations. 

The Duck tribe furnish good examples of this ; 
generally speaking, one may say tjiey never display 
by drooping their vnngs, though such a show- 
gesture is a common one among birds. But display 
by raising the elbows, and thus erecting the secon- 
dary quills, is famihar in many species, especially 
the white and black Swans, though the Black- 
necked Swan {Cygnus nigricollis) does not practise 
it ; the males of Ducks most nearly allied to the 
Mallard rear and curtsey just as that bird does, 
the plain-coloured species (like the Australian 
Mallard and Yellow-billed Chihan Teal, Nettium 
flavirostre) doing so just like the sex-decorated 
forms, an important point, since it shows the display 



SHOWING WHITE FEATHERS 271 

is older than the decoration ; while the Mandarin 
and Carolina Ducks, nearly allied as they are, 
seem to have gone out of their way to display 
differently, the former raising his crest as much 
as possible, and throwing his head back and breast 
out like a Fantail Pigeon, while the latter raises 
his head and tail as if he were being lifted up by 
an invisible string attached to each end, and posi- 
tively flattens down his crest as much as possible. 

This is a particularly interesting case, first 
because the displays of other twin species with 
high decoration — the two Peafowl, the common 
Turkey and the brilliant Honduras Turkey (Melea- 
gris ocellata), and the Golden and Amherst Pheasants 
— are almost exactly alike, and secondly because it 
is very rare for a bird to reduce instead of dis- 
playing a decorative feature, although a similar case 
is found in the Bulbuls, which also depress their 
handsome crests when courting, though they erect 
them when alert, as does the Carolina drake also. 

It is very noticeable that whenever a bird has 
any white about it, this is almost invariably the 
main feature of the display, no matter what other 
colours are present ; this is well seen in the court- 
ship of the Magpie and the Great Bustard, and 
the peculiar gesture of the Carolina drake is well 
adapted to show off his white throat, while the 
crest-expansion of his ally may be connected with 
the fact that he has much more white in his head- 
dress. On the other hand, the rear-up of the 
Bronze-Cap drake conceals his white throat, as he 



272 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

bends down his head after the fashion of his aUies 
the Gadwall and Teal when executing this gesture. 

But another ver^ striking display of white is 
that of the Moorhen, which makes a great show of 
its white under-tail plumage when angry, defiant, 
or amorous, and the blue Porphyrio of India {Por- 
fhyrio poliocephalus) does the same thiDg. This 
bird also claps its wings over its back when excited, 
a gesture also found in the Globose Curassow cock, 
and as every one knows, in our common Chanticleer ; 
especially does he do this before crowing, but the 
Grey Jungle-Fowl (Gallus sonnerati) does not, so 
far as I have seen, and the green Javan Jungle-Fowl 
(G. varius) claps its wings after crowing, like the 
Pheasants, which is interesting, as this species is 
the most Pheasant-like of the Jungle-Fowl. In the 
Silver Pheasant the crow is suppressed and the 
wing-flapping becomes a buzz, though to me no 
sound is audible, but the allied Lineated Kaleege 
{Getificeus lineatus) is credited with making a noise 
which suggests an earthquake, and the drumming 
of the courting Ruffed Grouse of America (Bonasa 
umhellus) is apparently produced by a similar 
very rapid agitation of the wings. 

It is in one of the Grouse that courting emotion 
appears to reach its highest pitch ; in the well- 
known love-song and display of the CapercailHe 
the performer gets so excited at the highest pitch 
of the performance that he gnashes and foams, 
closes his eyes, and becomes deaf by the sv/elling 
of the soft palate, while the tree he is perched on 



SENTIMENT IN PEAHENS 273 

absolutely trembles ; it is at this point that sports- 
men on the Continent advance in stalking him, 
though the admiring hens do their best to give 
warning. Gnashing or snapping of the beak under 
excitement occurs, by the way, among various 
other birds ; it is particularly to be noted in Owls 
when menaced, and in the cock Rhea when 
anxious about the safety of his brood. 

The attachment shown by the Capercaillie hens 
to the cock has parallels elsewhere, notably in the 
fondness Peahens display for their favoured mate ; 
Heron states that his birds went unmated one whole 
season because their favourite was shut up, but in 
a wired run where he was still in view ; yet his 
rival was a black- winged bird, more beautiful than 
the type, and the successful bird was pied. I 
recently, however, saw a Peahen in Regent's Park 
associate persistently with a black-winged Peacock 
instead of a common one ; but the former was 
nevertheless inferior in beauty, as he only bore 
his first full train, while the other bird was at his 
best. The older bird, although feared by the 
younger, did not press his advantage ; and it is 
this propensity to leave matters to the female's 
choice that makes Peafowl and Mandarin Ducks 
so suitable for the study of sexual selection, for 
birds which fight matters out upset the issue. 

In Peafowl the male seems to have no sentiment 

about the hen, but in many birds the male is 

selective whenever he gets the chance, which 

seldom happens in the wild state, females beins^ at 

18 



274 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

a premium ; the preferences of Fowls for particular 
hens are, however, well known, and Chaucer makes 
a great point of this in his story of Chanticleer and 
Partlet. I have myself seen a large half-Spanish 
cock always accompanied by bantam hens, where 
the attachment must have been mutual, as he was 
master of the yard and could have had his choice, 
while he could not have compelled the attendance 
of such active little creatures had they not actually 
preferred him to the bantam cocks. 

A Buff Cochin which was the pride of my boyish 
poultry-fancying also was much in love with the 
smallest and prettiest of our mongrel hens, and 
a Globose Curassow cock at the Zoo was devoted 
to a hen of the handsome zebra-marked aber- 
rational type described as Crax hecki, preferring 
her to three normal brown hens. He bred with 
her twice, and when separated from her on the 
second occasion lest his fury in defence should 
endanger the chick (which, by the way, is a hen, 
and typical globicera), moped and would not eat 
for some days. Such grief is not unusual among 
birds of strong character ; Rogeron cites a case in 
which a Carolina Drake died of nothing else but 
shock at the death of his mate, and Hume gives 
two instances justifying the current belief in 
India that if one of a pair of Sarus Cranes is shot 
the other will pine to death. 

Besides love, birds exhibit hatred in a very 
marked degree ; their general rancour against 
Owls is very noticeable, and high-spirited species 



A DUCK-POND VENDETTA 275 

of the same group often display marked animosity 
when they meet ; for instance, Sheldrakes have a 
general aversion to Geese, and usually bully them, 
in spite of their own smaller size. The jealousy of 
male birds is well known, and of course leads to 
numerous fights ; but male birds will also fight over 
nesting-sites, as 1 have seen in India with the 
House-Mynah, the hens looking on as seconds. 

The mobbing of Hawks and Owls is no doubt 
often dictated by revenge ; and birds may be ob- 
served sometimes to harbour a grudge. M. Rogeron 
describes a Brazilian Teal {Nettium hrasiliense) 
which had provoked a rather hot-tempered Mallard 
Duck and been nearly drowned by her in conse- 
quence, as never failing afterwards, whenever he 
could do so safely, to smack her across the face 
with his wing. Dr. A. G. Tutler gives a case 
in which a Whydah-bird, whose long tail-plumes 
had been plucked out one by one by a pair of 
nesting Song-Sparrows, bided its time and killed 
one of the little thieves ; and in the Calcutta Zoo a 
pair of African Triangular-spotted Pigeons (Columba 
guinea), which had been much annoyed by the 
futile attacks of a male Cockatiel (Calopsittacus 
novcB-hollandice) which was breeding in the same 
enclosure, revenged themselves on him by pecking 
his young, when they left the nest, most severely. 
This was an unusual procedure on the part of 
Pigeons, which are not usually aggressive to birds 
not of their own family. 

As much may be said of most birds whose intelli- 



276 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

gence is low ; unfortunately the higher in type 
the mind of the bird, the more apt it is to be 
indiscriminately vicious, as one may see in Parrots, 
Crows, Weavers, and Sheldrakes. The Caracara 
Carrion-Hawk {Polyhorus brasiliensis) is also more 
mischievous than other less intelHgent birds of 
prey ; I have even known one in the Calcutta Zoo 
deliberately take any extra bit of food given him 
up to the partition-bars separating him from an 
Imperial Eagle {Aquila imferialis), solely to enjoy 
that bird's discomfiture at seeing food he could 
not himself obtain. 

Some birds are so churlish that they like as a 
rule to be alone ; such are the " nobler " birds of 
prey — Falcons and Eagles — and most Thrushes, 
especially the Robins and Nightingales ; it is to be 
noted that these, the finest singers, are also the 
most cantankerous, and their most thrilling music 
is, it is to be feared, often only a " hymn of hate " ; 
but at the same time, hen birds are undoubtedly 
impressed by song, and canary-fanciers are con- 
stantly being troubled by a hen bird " pairing by 
the voice," and so upsetting any matrimonial 
arrangements they themselves have made for her, 
for no other suitor will be well received in such a 
case until the favoured troubadour is out of hearing. 

It is quite a common thing to see affectionate 
birds express their love for each other by fondling 
each other's head with their bills, an attention 
which human onlookers are apt to mistake for a 
search for parasites. This is often a group- 



THE CUSTOM OF CARESSING 277 

character, being very noticeable in Pigeons, Parrots, 
Babblers, and Waxbills, for instance; but it also 
occurs in other groups sporadically, being practised 
hy Penguins, Tree-Ducks, and Coots among water- 
fowl, and by the Talking-Mynahs among the 
Starlings. I have even seen a Muscovy Duck 
caress her downy ducklings with her bill, this species 
being the most motherly of all the Ducks, while 
her ducklings for their part seem to cling to her 
more than do those of others. 

The caressing habit is connected with high 
sociability in many cases, i.e. with a tendency to 
associate in larger numbers than single pairs, and 
to combine for mutual defence ; thus, the small 
Indian Tree-Ducks will tackle other waterfowl 
several together, and Mr. H. Wormald has lately 
recorded how the White-faced Tree-Ducks (Den- 
drocycna viduatd) recently reared by him resented 
the handling of one of their number, gathering 
round with drooping wings — a very remarkable 
gesture for Ducks — and flying up as if to effect a 
rescue of the prisoner. 

This drooping of the wings under social excite- 
ment is no doubt the origin of the " shamming 
lame " behaviour common to so many birds when 
beguiling enemies away from their nests and 
young, as in the case of the Partridge, Lapwing, 
and Sheldrake ; though no doubt the habit, 
emotional at first, becomes afterwards an intelligent 
action, in some cases at all events. Similarly, the 
" shamming dead " action, as exemplified by the 



278 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

Landrail and Tinamou, is regarded by Mr. Hudson 
as a kind of swoon induced hy extreme terror ; but 
I have noticed that cock Purple Sun-birds (Cinnyris 
asiatica) when attacked by a rival in confinement, 
hang from the perch by the feet as if dead, which 
looks rather like a ruse de guerre. 

Sun-birds, like all honey- eating birds, are very 
pugnacious, but among these sweet-loving swash- 
bucklers some, the comparatively large plain-coloured 
Friar-birds of Australasia {Philedoti), are full of social 
instinct, and unite to drive off Hawks and Crows. 
Hence has arisen the idea that they are " mim- 
icked," unconsciously of course, by some Orioles 
which live in the same islands and resemble them in 
their sober snuff-brown colours ; but as the ordi- 
nary gorgeous Orioles of Asia and Africa get on all 
right without mimicry, and as in Australia itself 
the Orioles, though not very bright, do not in the 
least resemble the local Friar-birds, the theory is 
unnecessary. 

The poHce instinct which leads high-spirited 
birds of active flight to attack predatory species is, 
however, usually developed among soHtary rather 
than social species ; the King-bird {^yrannus 
carolinensis) of North America is perhaps the most 
striking exponent of this policy, but he has a worthy 
rival in the very abundant and conspicuous " King- 
Crow," or common Drongo Shrike of the East, 
while in Europe the Missel-Thrush takes up police 
duty. 

Birds may even assume the function of warning 




AMERICAN KING-BIRD. 

The King-bird is dark grey above and white beUnv, with a llaiuo-eolouicd crest, which, 

when disphiyed, is said to attract insects. 
278 [By permission of " The Graf^liic."' 



m 



KING-CROW. 

The King-crow, being very common, and habitually perching in conspicitous places, is 

one of the best-known birds in the Old- World Tropics. 

IBy permission of "jThe Graphic,** 



i 



CHANGING THE SENTRIES 279 

other species against man, as gunners in this country 
well know in the case of the Curlew and Redshank, 
while in India the Ruddy Sheldrake is the best 
known sentinel. In the case of this bird the motive 
is certainly not philanthropic, or rather philornithic, 
for, as may be seen in our parks, it cherishes an 
extensive prejudice against all other waterfowl, 
but being naturally wary and excessively noisy 
to boot, it becomes automatically the watchman 
for its neighbours. Flocking birds of the more 
intelligent kinds very commonly have sentinels of 
their own flock, and in the case of wild Geese the 
process of changing sentry has been observed ; the 
sentinel may be approached by one of the flock and 
touched, after which it lowers its head and begins 
to feed, while the relief bird assumes the watching 
position — or it may, as has also been seen, force 
another bird to take its turn by dealing it a hard 
peck. 

In some cases, as is well known, sociability amongst 
birds extends to social nesting, familiar to us in 
the case of Rooks and Sand-Martins, though it is 
more common among sea-fowl — in which it is 
usual — than land-birds. The well-known Social 
Weaver, the Republican Grosbeak of the old 
naturalists {Philet^rus socius), carries the social habit, 
usual among Weavers, so far as to construct a 
common roof of grass, under which each pair con- 
structs its own nest, and a somewhat similar habit 
has been alluded to above in the case of the only 
nest-building Parrot. As a general rule, however, 



28o BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

even birds which are social in winter nest in separate 
pairs, though associations of two males and one 
female, or vice versa^ have been recorded ; and 
pol7gam7 is well known in many game-birds and 
in Whydah-birds {Viduincs)^ while polyandry appears 
to be normal in Hemipodes and Tinamous, and 
the parasitic nesters like Cuckoos and Cow-birds 
are credited with promiscuity. 

Generally, however, the pair are faithful, not 
only for the season, but, so far as evidence goes, 
for several years, probably until a stronger rival 
ousts the older and weaker partner, for strength 
appears to be the chief determining factor in bird 
marriage. At the same time, sentiment presum- 
ably has something to do with it, because one so 
often sees cross-matings among the various species 
of Geese kept in our parks ; Geese are very intelli- 
gent, and not very amorous, and wild hybrids 
among them are practically unknown, so that it 
would seem that these irregular alliances are dic- 
tated by congeniality of disposition where there 
are but few of each species to choose from. 



CHAPTER X 

Song and cries of birds — Bird-language generally — ^Extent to 
which the notes are instinctively developed — ^The instinct of 
mimicry — Species which can imitate human speech — Problem 
of this ability and extent of exercise of the same — ^Possibility 
of understanding of bird-language by man. 

From the earliest historical times the voices of birds 
have attracted at least as much attention as their 
flight and plumage, as is natural, for they are the 
most vocal of all animals, voice being more charac- 
teristic of them than flight, for there are a good 
number of flightless species, as we have seen, w^hile 
none are destitute of voice at all ages and in both 
sexes ; for even among the typical Storks, which 
have evolved a sort of deaf-and-dumb language by 
clattering the bill, the nestlings utter wheezing 
squeaks, and although some of the males of the 
Ducks are nearly voiceless, such as the Muscovy 
drake, which only utters a wheezing sound as if 
panting for breath, the females always have a distinct 
loud note, though in the case of the Muscovy Duck 
this is rarely uttered. 

The curious bulb found at the base of the wind- 
pipe in so many of the males of the Duck tribe 

seems to act as a damper to the quack of the drake ; 

281 



282 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

thus, in the common drake, though he can make 
a much louder noise than the Muscovy, the quack 
sounds exactly as if he had an extremely bad 
cold. Drakes, indeed, can seldom produce so full 
a sound as the ducks, and the voices of the 
two sexes are not interchangeable as they are in 
some other birds — most of my readers must have 
come across a crowing hen or a singing female 
Canary, and every one knows the cock can cluck 
and cackle just as much as the hen. 

The voice of birds is produced in the syrinx, a 
special vocal organ situated at the base of the 
windpipe just at its bifurcation to enter the lungs, 
and it is here in the drakes that the " drum " is 
developed where it exists. Where it is present but 
very small, as in the Ruddy Sheldrake {Casarca 
rutild)^ the drake may have as strong a voice as the 
duck, and where it is absent, as in the tiny Cotton- 
Teal {Nettofus coTomandelianus) the drake's note 
may be stronger, the male in this little Duck 
cackling loudly, while the female only squeaks like 
a duckhng. In the Tree-ducks there is no bulb, 
and both sexes have a strong voice, uttering a 
whistling cackle or a subdued twitter ; in fact, 
they can modify their voices almost Hke the singing 
Passerine birds. 

In the latter the vocal muscles developed at the 
base of the windpipe are particularly strong, but 
the same development is found in the Crows, which 
are not commonly reckoned as songsters, and in 
one type of Passerine bird supposed to have a 



THE IMITATIVE FACULTY 283 

lower grade of " syrinx," as this vocal organ is 
called, the Lyre-bird (Menura) of Australia, the 
voice is very flexible and the bird is a splendid 
mocker even when wild, and has been known when 
brought up tame even to imitate human speech. 

In the groups with the greatest perfection of 
vocal organs great imitative faculty is common, 
as we see in the case of the Starling and Jay, both 
of them well known as talkers when tamed, and 
given to imitating various sounds — generally 
cries of other birds — when wild. The Crows and 
Starlings generally are the chief talkers and mockers, 
and exercise the latter faculty even in the wild 
state. Many people must have heard the Starling's 
imitations delivered from a chimney-pot, and the 
African White-necked Crow {Corvus scapulatus) 
has been known to amuse himself by imitating a 
Bustard's call, to the great discomfiture of the 
pursuing sportsman. The abilities of our Sedge- 
Warbler and of the American Mocking-bird (Mimus 
orpheus) are also well known, and so are those of 
the New Zealand Tui or Parson-bird {Prosthemadera 
novcz-xealandice)^ one of the honey- eaters. 

In fact, in every country with a reasonably varied 
bird-population there is sure to be some species 
with the mocking faculty, exercised apparently 
purely for the pleasure it gives as a rule. Audubon, 
however, credits the Northern Shrike {Lanius 
borealis) with beguiling small birds within its reach 
by imitating the cries of a bird in distress, and 
Dame Juliana Berners, in the Middle Ages, strongly 



284 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

denounced our nearly-allied Great Grey Shrike 
(Lanius excuhitor) as an " ungratefull subtill fowle " 
for the same treacherous manoeuvre. 

But it is curious that such imitative birds do not, 
when v^ild, generally copy human speech, though I 
have myself come across a case which seemed 
very like it ; when living a few years ago just north 
of Regent's Park, I used to hear a voice in the very 
early morning outside my bedroom saying " Pretty 
Polly," and at first blamed some one for unfeelingly 
putting out an unfortunate Parrot to shiver in its 
cage in a cold spring dawn ; but ultimately I found 
the talker to be a wild Blackbird, which came to 
sing his matin song — which, as every observer 
knows, is more varied than his musical perform- 
ances given later on in the day — from a very tall 
tree in a garden at the back of my bedroom. Un- 
less the utterance of these words was a mere "fluke," 
he had probably picked them up at some time from 
a Parrot, for the Blackbird is at times imitative, 
though not nearly so much so as the Starling or 
Sedge- Warbler, or even the Song-Thrush. If the 
resemblance to human speech were merely acci- 
dental, this might explain Pliny's story of the 
" talking Thrush " in the possession of the Em- 
press Agrippina in his day, for the Thrush is 
notorious for the human- like phrasing of its song. 

I do not know that the well-known and celebrated 
black talking Hill-Mynahs (Eulabes) of the East 
exercise any mocking faculty when vdld, but if 
they do not it would be nothing wonderful, con- 



A MUSICAL PARRAKEET 285 

sidering the talking faculties of Parrots, which 
have a less elaborate vocal apparatus than these 
Mynahs or other Passerine birds, and seem to 
have no imitative faculty at all until reclaimed by- 
man ; though as a matter of fact, I do not suppose 
much is known of the intimate habits of Parrots, 
which, like most birds of particular interest to the 
" man in the street," are neglected by ornithologists, 
and are in any case not easy to study when wild, 
most of them either spending all their lives in the 
tree-tops, or at any rate retiring to them when 
not feeding. 

At least one can sing, however, the familiar little 
Budgerigar, and this bird, when hand-reared, can 
be taught to talk — hardly any Parrot, by the way, 
will learn anything when adult ; but in the case of 
the present species I have known an unmated cock, 
kept in an aviary along with a Thrush and other 
birds, learn the Thrush's rather complex song 
quite perfectly, though of course his rendering of 
it was in a very " still, small voice." 

Several of the other non-passerine groups contain 
singers, song having been recorded in Hornbills, 
Kingfishers, and Humming-birds, the singer in the 
last case being the smallest or almost the smallest 
of all, the Vervain Humming-bird {Mellisuga 
minima) ; in fact, generally speaking, song-birds 
are small members of their groups, the large Lyre- 
bird being quite an exception. The Amherst and 
Cheer Pheasants also undoubtedly sing, if the song 
is not very musical, and observers of that charming 



286 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

little diver, the L ong-t ailed JDuck of our northern 
coasts {Harelda glacialis), speak of its " song." 

Song, it must be understood, is quite a con- 
ventional term when used in the ordinary way ; 
technically it means any noise which is not a call- 
note; thus the Cock's crow is just as much a song 
as the Nightingale's musical efforts. With short 
simple songs like the Cock's crow and the Chaffinch's 
short outburst, the development is instinctive : 
but anything more complicated has generally to be 
learnt from others of the species, and the result of 
this is that a hand-reared bird, if uneducated, 
sometimes turns out a most extraordinary jumble 
in which no trace of the proper song can be detected. 
Thus, an old school friend of mine, Mr. C. Bard- 
well Clarke, brought up a young Linnet, which, 
reared in a town, developed no Linnet notes at all, 
but sang a jumble of the Starlings' whistles and the 
chattering of the Sparrows ; and conversely, a 
Sparrow brought up with singing birds will produce 
a noise we can accept as song, instead of the '' chip, 
chip, cheer " which seems to be the natural and 
spontaneous outpouring of the Sparrow's soul. 

The Brambling, by the way, is an example of 
another Finch which sings disgracefully for a 
member of a family including such talented creatures 
as the Linnet and Canary, for the only note in his 
song is " zee-e," an expression of emotion which 
can be bettered even by Pheasants and waterfowl. 

It is only among Passerines and Parrots, how^ever, 
that the power of mimicry occurs, and hence only 



RATIONAL MIMICRY 287 

these birds are ever talkers, for only imitative birds 
have the power of speech, though not hy any means 
all of such species ever develop it, however great 
may be their opportunities when kept tame. 

Considering the difference in the vocal organs of 
birds? and men, this imitation of our speech is 
certainly not the least wonderful of theit pecu- 
liarities, especially as vocal mimicry under natural 
conditions cannot be of the least service to them 
as a rule, but is merely latent altogether, as seems 
to be the case with Parrots in the wild state, or 
is only used by way of amusement, with the excep- 
tion of the Shrike's alleged treacherous custom. 
An Indian Shrike which preys on frogs, by the 
way, has been noticed to incorporate the screams of 
the hapless batrachians in its song, so that it is 
quite easy to see how the Great Grey Shrikes of 
the north might easily begin imitating the cries of 
distressed birds merely for amusement, and then 
develop the habit for profit as well as pastime, as 
described by Audubon and Dame Berners. 

This would make a close approach to rational 
speech, and no one who has seen much of intelligent 
Parrots can doubt that these birds have at least 
some idea of the meaning of what they say. For 
instance, I have never heard, or heard of, any 
Parrot ask for any sort of refreshment unless it 
saw food, or use any inappropriate word at such 
times, though it might not know the exact expres- 
sion. Such a bird, for instance, behaves much like 
a person groping a way through a foreign language. 



288 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

or a child learning to speak. Thus, I have known a 
Lemon-crested Cockatoo which always said " Cocky 
wants some breakfast " or " Cocky wants some 
water " at meal- times, obviously not knowing the 
exact words, but at any rate using expressions which 
had something to do with refreshment. He never 
said " Good-night " at such times, though he said 
this regularly when left alone finally in the evening. 

Every one who has had acquaintance with one 
of the larger and more intelligent Parrots will 
recollect instances like this, and if Parrots do not 
develop a higher degree of rational conversation 
than they do, this is partly due to the fault of 
their teachers, as well as to the paucity of ideas 
one would expect in one of the lower animals. 

Other talking birds, such as Mynahs, Ravens, 
etc., seem not to be so rational in their conversation 
as Parrots, however good their enunciation may 
be, and though I have heard Mynahs make some 
astonishingly apposite-sounding remarks, this result 
always seemed to me to be purely accidental, and 
not due to the attempt to really utilize speech as 
Parrot sometimes do. 

In Parrots at all events talking power has nothing 
to do with sex, for female birds talk just as well 
as males ; in fact, one experienced dealer, Mr. C. P. 
Arthur, who is also a taxidermist and has thus 
dissected many of the well-known African Grey 
Parrots, states that in his experience he never 
came across a male of this species. This may have 
to do with the fact— if it is a fact — that Parrots 



MUSICAL FEMALE BIRDS 289 

are not naturally mockers, but only develop the 
imitative habit under human control and cultiva- 
tion; for, as every one knows, Passerine birds, to 
which all other talking and mocking species belong, 
generally only sing when of the male sex. And 
though to this there are numerous exceptions, of 
which the hen of the beautiful Red Cardinal of 
America {Cardinalis cardinalis) is perhaps the best 
known, still there is no hen bird which sings better 
than her mate, and none which sings while the 
male is mute ; though, as we have seen in the case 
of the Ducks, and as is also the case with the Guinea- 
Fowl, the female may have a much stronger voice 
than the male. In these cases, however, he is still 
much more loquacious than she is, and although his 
voice to us sounds weaker, her ear may be more 
attuned to it. 

There are some curious cases of coincidental 
resemblances between voices of unrelated birds 
and between sounds made by birds and by mammals 
and even produced by mechanical means, which 
deserve attention. Many people must have noticed 
the great resemblance between the piping call of 
the Kingfisher and that of the common Sandpiper, 
and between the note of the Kestrel and that of 
the Wryneck. I have noted others in cases where 
the birds do not occupy the same country, at any 
rate when breeding ; thus the pretty Wire-tailed 
Swallow (Hirundo smithii) of Africa and India has 
exactly the same call- note '' swee-et " as the Canary, 
an Azorean species ; and an Australian Dove 
19 



290 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

{Geofelia humeralis) has one note exactly like that 
of the common Cuckoo. 

Cuckoos themselves are just as remarkable for 
curious notes as for parasitism and for resemblances 
in appearance to birds of alien families : thus 
we have the well-known " Brain- fever- bird " of 
India {Hierococcyx varius)^ with its strange tri- 
syllabic notes running up the scale, and preceded 
by an overture, while the dissyllabic note of the 
Koel {Eudynamis honoratd) also runs up the scale. 
Our own Cuckoo's note is known to be so truly 
musical that it can be imitated easily by mechanical 
means and even struck on the piano, and as every 
one knows is so readily rendered by the human 
voice that *' early Cuckoos " are always regarded 
with grave suspicion. 

Nightjars also have many strange notes, the 
machine-like whirring of our familiar species being 
rivalled by the singular sound produced by a 
common Indian species (Cafrimulgus indicus), which 
is just like the sound of a stone bounced along ice ; 
and the human-sounding notes of the American 
" Whip-poor-will " {Cafrimulgus vociferus) have 
long been celebrated. 

Other mammalian voices besides man's come in 
for this fortuitous imitation ; the roar of the cock 
Ostrich is not unlike that of the lion, and the 
American Cat-bird {Galeoscoftes carolinensis), which 
is a Mocking-Thrush, and the Australian Cat-bird 
{JBlurcedus mridis), one of the Bower-birds, have 
obtained their names from their cat-calls, while 



COINCIDENCE IN THOUGHT 291 

the Eagle yelps like a little dog, and the Bittern 
bellows like a bull. 

Resemblances to mechanical sounds are also 
curiously common elsewhere than among Night- 
jars; the Coppersmith Barbet's note is just like 
a little gong regularly beaten ; and the Naked- 
throated Bell- bird (Chasmorhynchus nudicollis) 
of South America has a really magnificent me- 
tallic clang, like a bar of iron struck with a rod, 
which, overpowering though it is close at hand, is, 
I think, at a reasonable distance, the finest bird 
note I have ever heard. The more celebrated Bell- 
bird proper (C. niveus)^ whose note is said to be like 
a church bell, is nearly related. 

Old legends and fairy-tales are full of allusions to 
people who could understand the speech of birds, 
and, quite apart from talking birds which un- 
doubtedly do at times make their linguistic acquire- 
ments serve their ends, there seems to me con- 
siderable possibility of men understanding the 
notes and gestures of birds at least as well as these 
do each other. A man and a bird may have the 
same idea at once ; thus, just before I saw the 
Song-Thrush above-mentioned catch the minnow, 
I remember thinking, " I wonder if that bird could 
catch one of those fish ; " and on the first occasion 
on which I saw a Peahen take distinct notice of a 
Peacock's display, gazing attentively at his train, 
the Peacock and I both had the same idea — that the 
favourable moment had come ; and we were both 
mistaken, and mistaken twice in quick succession. 



292 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

In watching waterfowl I have had similar experi- 
ences ; at the time of writing the waterfowl at St. 
James's Park were restricted to a comparatively 
small area of water at the east end of the park, the 
rest of the pond being drained, and the young 
Mallard ducklings have been coming close up to 
the path to be fed. An old Duck, watching her 
brood with anxious quacks, gave an extra loud one 
as a Canadian Goose came too near them for her 
satisfaction, and the ducklings bolted helter-skelter 
into the pond. Now it was perfectly obvious that 
all the old Duck meant to say was " Keep away 
from that Goose " — a few feet's retirement would 
have been sufHcient ; but all her vocabulary allowed 
was " danger," and the ducklings promptly acted 
on the word. Here I could understand the Duck, 
but the ducklings could not ; in another case a 
drake and I were both at a loss. A pair of Man- 
darin Ducks were, at a dealer's, confined in a 
hutch with perches, and were roosting on the top 
one. The duck started pulling at the drake's 
crest until she fairly upset him, and he fell to the 
floor ; but when he mounted again she let him 
alone, being now next the wall, and it became 
obvious to me that she wanted the inside berth, 
was not active enough to jump over him, and 
could not explain to him any more than to me 
that she wanted him to get out of her way. 



CHAPTER XI 

Weapons and fighting methods of birds — ^Their combats with 
each other and with various natural enemies — Chief enemies 
of birds — ^The passive resistance of birds to unfavourable 
climate and surroundings — Natural defences — Perfection and 
degeneracy of plumage in this connection — ^Powder-coating of 
some groups. 

In the state of war in which birds, hke other wild 
creatures, perforce exist, they are naturally often 
called upon to fight, though better qualified, by 
their general power of flight, for escaping than 
most other creatures ; and it is noticeable that 
some of the most formidable fighters are found 
amongst those in which the power of flight is 
wanting or not highly developed — the great running- 
birds and the Game-bird tribe. The Ostrich holds 
its own among the African quadrupeds by dint of 
the power of its great feet, the single claw on the 
longer of its two toes being such a terrible weapon 
that it can pierce corrugated iron ; and any beast 
up to the size of a hyaena has to avoid the Ostrich's 
wrath. These great birds draw themselves up and 
strike out with one foot, the Emu and Cassowary 
being very formidable kickers as well as the Ostrich. 
In the Cassowaries one of the claws, the innerm.ost, 
is specialized as a weapon, being unusually long 

293 



294 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

and straight ; and the native tribes which inhabit 
regions where these birds live use it as a head for 
their spears. 

The Rheas fight with bill as well as feet, holding 
on like bull-dogs, and bill- and foot-fighting is the 
rule among the Game-birds ; every observer must 
have seen how fighting cocks strive to get a hold 
with the bill and with that purchase to dehver a 
telHng blow with the spurred legs. 

It is only among the Game-birds that spurs on the 
leg occur at all, and they are generally single, and 
normally confined to the male, as in the Fowl, Turkey, 
and common Peacock ; but there are several groups 
in which the cock has two or more spurs on each 
leg, such as some of the African Francolin Part- 
ridges (Pternistes) and the Asiatic Spur- Fowls 
(Galloperdix) with two, the females of the latter 
having one ; the Peacock-Pheasants (Polyplectron) and 
Blood-Pheasants (Ithagenes) have variable numbers 
in the male birds, in the common Himalayan 
Blood-Pheasant the cock having up to four on 
one leg and five on the other ; while I notice that 
in three wild-bred and fully adult cock Grey 
Peacock-Pheasants (P. chinquis) in the London Zoo 
at present one bird has two spurs on each leg, one 
one on one leg, and the third none, from which I 
argue that such multiple spurs do not seem to be of 
much use. Besides the hen Spur- Fowls, the hens 
of the Crestless Pheasants (Acomus) and of the Javan 
Pea- Fowl are spurred as well as the cocks. 

The long single spurs seen in the Fowl and some 



FIGHTING QUALIFICATIONS 295 

similar birds are really terrible weapons ; the wild 
Jungle-Fowl is a terrible fighter for his size, and 
his least- modified tame descendant the game- 
cock, a professional gladiator, has even been known 
to kill a fox, this supreme gallinaceous exploit 
having been chronicled in a sporting magazine 
about a hundred years ago. 

Ceylon Jungle-Fowl can beat ordinary tame 
Fowls, and the common Indian red one has been 
seen to thrash a Kaleege Pheasant (Genneeus)^ 
which is more than a match for our Pheasants. So 
is the little wiry Gold Pheasant, curiously enough, 
a result which must be due to his extreme activity, 
since his spurs are rudimentary. The springing 
necessary in birds which fight with both feet at 
once, as these do, gives of course a great advantage 
to the more active bird if other qualifications are 
anywhere near equal ; the average heavy tame 
Cock cannot beat the common Pheasant, though 
the Jungle-Fowl can do so. Besides the slayer of 
Reynard, another game-cock, recorded in Teget- 
meier's poultry-book, has won fame by kilHng a 
Kite, and even the game-hen, as Wright's poultry- 
book relates, has been known to kill a rat, a Rook, 
and even a Hawk. 

As Mr. MacDonald, the pheasant-keeper at the 
Zoo, gave me an opportunity of observing, the Glo- 
bose Curassow Cock {Crax glohicera) when attacking 
his attendant's foot, did not strike, but gripped with 
the claws and bit, thus showing a method of attack 
more like that of a Passerine bird, and to these 



296 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

perchers the Curassow and Guan family show a 
slight approximation in form and habits, being the 
least specialized of Game-birds. The grappling 
unscientific method of fighting is very marked in 
Passerine birds, whose fights are regular *'tooth- 
and-claw " performances. Rails, such as our 
Moorhen and Coot, also grapple in this way. 

The Game-birds, especially Grouse, use their 
wings as well as their beaks and feet in fighting, 
but the most notable wing-fighters are the Pigeons, 
the Duck tribe, the Plovers and Snipes, and the Pen- 
guins. Some of these groups are regular professional 
boxers, and may be even armed with knuckle-dusters, 
as the Sheldrakes and that giant extinct flightless 
Pigeon, the SoHtaire (Pezophaps soli tar ius) of Ro- 
driguez ; or have spurs on the pinion-joint, as in the 
Spur-wing Geese (Plectropterus) and Spur-winged 
Lapwings of several kinds, besides the "lily- trotting" 
Jagands, several of which are spur-wdnged. The 
Screamers have two spurs on each wing — a large 
one on the pinion, and a smaller one nearer the 
tip of the wing. All spur-vnnged birds are spurred 
in both sexes, and in none of them do the spurs 
represent claws, being never at the ends of the 
digits. The Torrent-Ducks (Merganetta) of the 
Andes have spurs on the wings, but here it is just 
possible that these may be grappling-irons for 
climbing slippery rocks, as the New Zealand Tor- 
rent-Duck {Hymenolcemus malacorhynchus) is said 
to use its wings for scrambling up rocks, though in 
this species they are only knobbed, not spurred. 




AFRICAN J AC AN A. 
Showing the long toes and daws chaniclcrislic of this family of birds, and enabling them 



to walk on wator-planti 



296 




CUBAN TROGON. 

Noticeable in the Trogons are the very grouse-like wings and bill, though the habits of the 

birds are not at all like those of Grouse. 



KNUCKLE-DUSTERS AND SPEARS 297 

The spurs of the great Spur-winged Geese are 
certainly very formidable weapons, for it has been 
found possible to leave these birds out in the 
open at night at the Cairo Zoo, although jackals 
and wild cats visit this at night. Similarly at 
Calcutta, where similar quadruped foes were to be 
feared, Sarus Cranes, White Siberian and Man- 
churian Cranes {Antigone antigone^ Anthropoides 
leuco get anus ^ and Grus viridirostris) could be left 
out, as well as Adjutant and Marabout Storks 
(Leptoptilus duhius and javanicus) and Jabirus 
{Xenorhynchus asiaticus), while the smaller Storks 
and Cranes had to be shut in. The bayonet- like 
bills of these birds are formidable weapons, and 
they are not antagonists which man himself would 
wisely attack unless armed at least with a stick ; 
no doubt there was some truth in the classical 
legends of pigmies being defeated by Cranes, 
especially if by this title, as I have elsewhere sug- 
gested, one of the great carrion-eating Storks was 
meant. In the fights of the Adelie Penguin it 
has been noticed that the males " fight fair " with 
their flippers, but hens bite like suffragettes. 

Those^ most redoubtable fighters, the birds of 
prey, whose daily food is often gained only by a 
fight, rely mainly on the terrible stroke or grip of 
their talons, and use their beaks but little, though 
the Falcons often break the neck of the quarry 
with the bill after bringing it down. When cor- 
nered on the ground, they go over on their backs 
to fight, as do Herons also. Often Hawks and 



298 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

Eagles fight in mid- air, grappling with the claws 
and spinning round and round ; but they generally 
let go in time to avoid a fall. Quite innocent- 
looking little birds may however forget to do this ; 
I once picked up in the Calcutta Museum buildings 
a couple of House- Swifts (Cyfselus affinis) so tightly 
clenched claws to claws that it was quite difficult 
to pull them apart. No doubt it is loss of presence 
of mind owing to over- excitement like this that 
makes Sea-Eagles and Ospreys hang on to too 
strong prey till they are drowned, since under the 
fear of man they can let go their grip of their 
quarry quickly enough. 

Some birds rely almost entirely on biting, such 
as Gulls, Shrikes, and Parrots, the last of which 
can of course do great execution ; but Parrots have 
a silly-looking habit of trying to ward off a foe vdth 
one foot, which looks like asking for trouble, for 
both they and some stout-billed Finches, such as 
Weavers and Java Sparrows, make a point of biting 
the adversary's feet, like hyaenas among mammals. 

It is curious, by the way, that birds seldom aim 
at the throat of their enemy, the back of the head 
being the part attacked in most cases. The weak- 
ness of their necks, always comparatively long, puts 
them at a great disadvantage in contests with 
beasts, but on the whole they " get a good deal of 
their own back," and large numbers of the smaller 
and younger carnivorous mammals fall victims to 
birds of prey ; I have heard of a case of the Nepal 
Eagle-Owl {Huhua nefalensis) killing a full-grown 



RAVAGES OF ENEMIES 299 

civet-cat, to say nothing of the instances of rap- 
torial prowess related in a previous chapter. 

Mammalian enemies, however, and in the tropics 
snakes, crocodiles, and the large lizards, account 
for an enormous number of birds, and their ravages 
are in many cases chiefly directed against the more 
or less helpless young. Fish and other purely 
aquatic creatures take their toll ; pike are great 
enemies to young waterfowl ; tiger-fish (Hydrocyon) 
in Africa have been seen to take Bee-eaters when 
swooping to the surface of water, as trout take 
flies ; a fin-back whale has been found to have 
swallowed several Cormorants ; and no doubt the 
almost complete absence of diving-birds from the 
tropical seas is connected with the abundance 
there of sperm-whales and of sharks and other 
large predatory fish ; it will be noticed that the 
mammalian analogues of such birds, the seals, 
are also very scantily represented in tropical waters. 

Of special defences against attack, such as one 
sees among mammals in the armadillos, and among 
reptiles in the tortoises, we find little trace in birds, 
though their feathers are of themselves a very 
efficient armour, often even turning shot, as sports- 
men well know. The air-celled skin of the Screamers 
may act as padding against their wing-spurs when 
they fight, and the callous pad on the breast of 
the Ostrich commonly receives the kick of his 
adversary, though its primary utility is most evi- 
dently to bear his weight when lying down. 

The frill and warted face of the Ruff have been 



300 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

cited as defensive structures, but this view is, I 
am sure, quite mistaken ; the fights of Ruffs are 
most feeble affairs, the birds never really hurting 
each other even though fighting, as they often do, 
v^hen in undress ; their beaks are blunt and v^eak, 
they do not use their feet, and all they can do is 
to slap with their vnngs, the blows of which do 
no serious harm ; while as to the facial warts, some 
specimens never develop them at all. 

A much better defence is " bluffing '^ by expan- 
sion of the v^ngs or feathers, as is done by Owls, 
Bitterns, Painted Snipe {RJSynchcsa) and other 
birds ; this often suffices to keep the enemy from 
hostilities altogether, and may be the original object 
of the so-called sexual display. The Swan and. the 
Mandarin Drake certainly believe in displaying to 
bluff an enemy, and so do the Peacock and Turkey- 
cock, while the Ostrich often displays before com- 
mencing hostilities — in fact, the habit is very 
general among birds, and may be compared v^^ith 
the hair-bristling of mammals. 

I have seen some very amusing instances of this, 
as when a Canadian and a Greylag Gander once 
defied each other by display before me in Regent's 
Park, vTith out-stretched necks and lowered and out- 
spread tails ; ultimately the Canadian lay down as 
if daring his enemy to shift him, whereupon the 
said enemy sheered off and declined actual hos- 
tilities. I have also seen in the Calcutta Zoo a 
Crane try to bluff a PeHcan by opening its bill at 
it, only to flee in horror when the Pelican returned 



SOME URBAN DEGENERATES 301 

the compliment — though as a matter of fact a 
Pelican is a very poor fighter for its size, and I have 
known of two instances in which one of these 
awkward birds was killed by a Swan. 

The plumage of birds is not only a good defence 
against injury, but against weather, the feathering 
of many land-birds, even, throwing off water almost 
as well as that of most waterfowl ; but even among 
wild birds, if they are living under easy conditions, 
as with birds in London, one may observe a strong 
tendency to degeneration in plumage in some cases. 
Sparrows with very faulty plumage and broken 
tails are common in our town parks nowadays ; I 
have also seen at least two Moorhens with quills 
broken off short, and several Black-headed Gulls 
whose plumage was not properly waterproof. 

Rigorous climatic conditions would of course 
eliminate such birds, to say nothing of enemies ; 
but when birds definitely make beasts of themselves 
by losing the power of flight and running about on 
the ground, the state of the plumage does not seem to 
matter, and practically all such birds have degenerate 
loose- webbed plumage, the precise degree of de- 
generacy corresponding pretty closely to the degree 
of degenerate deviation from the normal bird type ; 
thus, the plumage is most degenerate in the Cas- 
sowaries and Emus, which have the most aborted 
wings, less so in the Ostrich, and still less in the 
Rheas, in which the wings are almost like those of 
normal birds, although soft-quilled. The flightless 
Rails and Parrot show much less marked deviation. 



302 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

but the tail is distinctly affected, and it will be 
noticed that defective quill- and tail-growth is 
quite common among domestic birds, as well as 
among the above-noted Cockneyfied wild ones. 

Very perfect weather-resisting devices are to be 
found, on the other hand, not only in the down 
underclothing of waterfowl, but in the curious 
cleansing and water-proofing powder to be found 
in the plumage of so many different groups, notably 
in Herons, Pigeons, and Cockatoos, and in the great 
bald Carrion-Storks like the Adjutant. Although, 
as will be seen, some of these birds are waders, none 
are habitual swimmers, and none are such vigor- 
ous bathers as m.ost birds, the Cockatoos apparently 
only bathing in showers of rain. 

Powder- dusted plumage is always very close, 
and as it cleans itself, may be looked on as the 
perfection of feathering, although the actual powder 
is said to be produced by the disintegration of 
individual feathers during growth, these " pulvi- 
plumes " occurring either scattered, as in Cocka- 
toos, or aggregated in patches, as in Herons. 
Finally, it will be noticed that whenever plumage 
is not directly concerned with promoting flight or 
giving cover from the elements, it has a strong 
tendency to become loose and degenerate in 
structure, as in the Peacock's train and many Para- 
dise-birds' plumes, as well as in the Ratite birds 
above referred to. 



CHAPTER XII 

Special instincts of birds — ^The play of young birds and of adults 
— Bower-builders and their peculiarities — Ornamentation of 
nests — ^The instinct for food-storage in some forms — ^The 
practice of piracy — Toilet and bed-time habits. 

It is in the study of certain special and sparse- 
distributed instincts of birds that their mental and 
moral similarity to ourselves often comes out best, 
and though in Europe we are not as well off for 
birds with habits of striking interest as are some 
of the other continents, there is yet now and 
again a point of much sympathetic interest to be 
gleaned from the study of our species. 

Playfulness for instance is well developed in some 
European birds ; the young of the Redpoll bred in 
an aviary have been described as playing about like 
kittens, just as I have seen young aviary-bred 
Budgerigars do. Not only do young ducks of 
various species play, but I have seen full-grown and 
full-plumaged drakes do so, a favourite trick with 
Mallard being to fly for a few feet just above the 
water and then close the wings and dive headlong 
into it — exactly the manoeuvre the young but 
fledged Gannet performs in practising its trade, 
judging from some they had at the Zoo some time 
ago. 

303 



304 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

I have even seen practical jokes played by a 
Sheldrake and by a Pigeon ; in the former case 
the bird, a pinioned one in Ravenscourt Park, 
London, was being chased by a spiteful Swan, and 
took long dives to avoid it, the enemy vindictively 
plunging head and neck under the surface to 
observe its course ; at first I pitied the duck, 
thinking it was a new arrival and afraid to come 
ashore near the spectators, but when it tired of 
the sport it did so, standing and pluming itself 
with such nonchalance that it had obviously only 
been amusing itself at the Swan's expense. 

The case of the Pigeon was even more remarkable ; 
some very small boys in a narrow back-street were 
chasing a young street-Pigeon which kept flying 
hither and thither for a few yards only at a time. 
I was considering whether I ought to stop them, or 
let one catch it to take home for a pie — as they 
were not well-to-do youngsters — when, to my 
surprise, as it alighted not far from me, I saw it was 
not panting or exhausted, and soon after it flew 
up on to a high roof, showing as plainly as possible 
that it, as well as the boys, had been enjoying the 
game. 

I have already alluded to the practical joke of 
a Carrion-Hawk on an Eagle, and every one knows 
the inveterate propensity for such jokes in birds 
of the Crow and Parrot tribes, the last-named birds 
being particularly apt to use their acquired gifts 
of speech in this way; every one has heard of a 
Parrot who calls the dog and then tells it to " go 



THE MOCKING-BIRD'S JOKES 305 

and lie down" or in some other way makes sport 
of the confiding canine. The Mocking-bird also 
appears to be a bird of much malicious humour ; 
at any rate Colonel Roosevelt tells of one which 
made a point of pecking a quiet old dog's tail 
whenever he dared to raise it above the horizontal ; 
and I have seen one in the London Zoo which, in 
the course of a few minutes, mocked the notes 
of a Bulbul (Pycnonotus) much to that bird's appar- 
ent annoyance, chased another smaller bird about 
the aviary till it clung to the wires panting, then 
left it and proceeded with much stealth to steal a 
stick from a pair of silly Pigeons which were making 
a futile attempt to nest on the grass-plot in the 
centre of the aviary. Among other groups than 
Passerines, Cockatoos, Lories, and Cranes are remark- 
able for their playfulness, which seems never to 
leave them at any age. 

Pigeons, being clumsy and harmless birds, come 
in for a good deal of attention from practical 
jokers in feathers ; I have seen a Peregrine Falcon 
which haunted the Calcutta Museum buildings in 
winter amusing himself by swooping down on some 
tame ones and then " throwing up " at the last 
moment, for he had a truce with his neighbours 
and did not kill on the premises ; and, at the other 
extreme, one may often see them in London chased 
on the wing by the mischievous Sparrow, and 
putting on great pace and some most active twisting 
to escape the attack in the rear threatened by the 
impudent little wretch. I have seen the Sparrow 
20 



3o6 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

play the same game on the Collared Doves loose at 
the Zoo, on the Starling, and even once on the 
wild Duck. Except for practical jokes of this kind, 
I have not seen the Sparrow play, or fly for amuse- 
ment ; in fact. Passerine birds, except the Crow 
tribe, though so light and active, seem seldom to 
fly for sport, though many sing in the air besides 
the Skylark. 

Sportive flights, however, are common in birds 
of other groups, and merge imperceptibly into 
courting displays ; even the slow, greedy Wood- 
Pigeon towers up and sails down in the courting 
ecstasy, and the more active and cheerful common 
Pigeon is very fond at all times of ghding for some 
distance with upward-slanting wings in true Eagle 
fashion, an action which the Pouter among domestic 
breeds indulges in in exaggerated fashion, being a 
Pigeon which carries out all Pigeon peculiarities to 
extremes. 

Jackdaws soar up in pairs in true raptorial fashion 
in the spring, and Rooks go in for all sorts of aerial 
antics before changes of weather, while I have 
seen both the Calcutta House-Crow and Carrion- 
Crow in London play a game very like " I'm king 
of the castle," in the former case on our Hghtning- 
conductors on the Indian Museum and in the 
latter on the weather-vane on a Regent's Park 
church. The Indian Crow also likes swooping 
down on Dabchicks, evidently being amused to see 
them dive, for he has far too much sense to think 
he can possibly catch them. 



TOURNAMENTS AND BALLS 307 

The play of adult birds leads naturally to their 
" balls " and tournaments, which, though un- 
doubtedly connected with matrimonial arrange- 
ments, have yet very much the character of assem- 
blages for amusement ; in many cases, as in 
Blackcock dances, a great amount of fighting goes 
on with little real damage, although the more 
solitary Capercailzie really mauls his opponent 
savagely. The fights of Ruffs, also, do no more 
harm than a glove-fight, and although Peafowl and 
Mandarin Ducks, judging from their habits in 
captivity, like to assemble for display, there seems 
to be little real fighting among them ; in the case 
of the " beauty shows " of the latter, which I 
have often observed in the evening at the Zoo, it 
always seemed to me that the birds were all paired 
already, and came together — on land, be it noted — 
night after night simply for the fun of the thing, 
although the ducks did their best to incite the 
drakes to hustle each other. 

It seems as if there is a tendency in highly 
evolved species, however courageous, to leave off 
fighting and concentrate on display, and in the 
well-known case of the Bower-birds of Australasia 
{Ptilonorhynchincs) the play-place is actually laid 
out and in many cases decorated by the birds. It 
IS to be noted that these extraordinary developments 
of bird instinct have occurred in a continent where 
man was, till we developed it, rare and at a low 
level, which, taken into consideration along with 
the human attributes so often noticeable in the 



3o8 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

Penguins, which usually live where there are no 
men at all, looks as if, in the absence of human 
civilization, and the presence of easy means of 
living, the birds do their best to become civilized 
themselves. 

There are several gradations in this instinct of 
bower-building, the simplest form of it being seen 
in 'the Tooth-billed Bower-bird {Scenofceus denti- 
Tostris) which simply carpets a patch of ground with 
large green leaves, and the most elaborate that of 
Newton's Bower-bird (Prionodura nezvtoniana), which 
builds an extraordinary avenue of sticks, higher on 
one side than the other, which it decorates with 
white flowers only; the placing of these flowers 
is the prerogative of the old cocks, which are 
often brought to blows by the action of one in 
removing a decoration which another has set up, 
while the hens and young birds simply look on and 
applaud. The smaller and simpler avenues of the 
Satin Bower-bird (Ptilonorhynchus holosericeus) and 
of the Spotted Bower-bird {Chlamydodera maculata) 
have long been well known, and that of the former 
used usually to be on view at the Zoo under the 
old management. 

The Satin-bird decorates with everything it can 
get, with a preference, as remarked previously in 
this book, for blue ; the Spotted Bower-bird has a 
special preference for bones and shells, and its 
bower looks like a badly-arranged local museum. 
The Gardener-birds (Jmblyornis) build structures 
like little huts, with a sort of garden outside, in 



PROVIDENT INSTINCTS 309 

the cas§ of one species decorated with moss and 
picked flowers and shoots, and in that of the other 
with sticks and black beetles and berries. Bower-birds 
will visit lonely huts, at times, to steal objects, 
recalling the well-known propensity of their rela- 
tions the Crows, which hoard both trinkets and 
food. 

The instinct of food-storage, important as it is, 
has been developed in but a few birds, chiefly 
Passerines, and it is especially noticeable in the 
Crow tribe, though one does not often get a chance 
of observing it in wild birds. It is, however, 
particularly well known in the Jays, which, feeding 
so much on such non-perishable food as acorns, 
have every encouragement to develop the habit. 
Tits also store food, the Cole-Tit being particularly 
assiduous, when fed at a bird-table, in carrying ofl 
bits and coming back quickly for a fresh supply. 
The Nuthatch has the food-storage instinct well 
developed, and a caged pair I had not only stored 
sunflower-seed in the chinks of the back of their 
large cage, but even live harvest-men-spiders or 
daddy-long-legs, without even taking the trouble 
to kill the unfortunate arachnids, but jamming 
them in ruthlessly and leaving them to kick. 

Shrikes, also, are suspected of impaling their 
prey alive in many cases ; the habit of doing so, 
which seems to be far better developed in the 
northern than in Indian species, is no doubt a 
form of food-storage, for they are quite capable 
of holding their food in their foot like Hawks, and 



3IO BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

do not really need to fix it up in order to tear it. 
I once saw a Drongo- Shrike, a Bhimraj or Great 
Racket- tailed Drongo (Dissemurus paradiseus)^ grip 
and scalp a gecko-Hzard I gave him alive, thinking 
he V70uld kill it more quickly and mercifully than 
I could, whistling meanwhile with horrid pleasure. 
Needless to say, I did not give him any more live 
lizards. 

Similar cat-like cruelty has been observed by 
Darwin in the case of a Cormorant, which amused 
itself by letting go a captured fish and catching it 
again, and by Buller in the case of a New Zealand 
Hawk (Hieracidea) which carried up two mice, 
one in each foot, and dropped them to catch them 
again, till he lost one, and decided to end the 
misery of the other by eating it. Cruel as it is, 
this habit is particularly interesting, as there were 
no mice in New Zealand to play v^ith before we 
came, though no doubt the young of the Maori 
rat and of the native Quail (Coturnix novce-zea- 
landia) had to put up with similar maltreatment 
before the white man and the mice appeared. 

The Carrion-Hawks of South America, so Crow- 
like in their ways, develop the storage habit in 
captivity at any rate, for I have seen both the 
Caracara and Forster's Milvago {Ihycter aus traits), 
the " Jack- Rook " of the Falklands, store away food 
at the Zoo. Owls are very great at keeping larders, 
and often accumulate quite a quantity of prey in 
their nesting-places, which, unlike most birds, they 
use as true homes, not merely as nurseries. Among 




o >. 

pq := 



o ^ 

3 s 




NEWTON S BOWER-BIRD. 
Newton's Bower-bird is brown, and yellow in plumage, and about the size of a Blackbird, 
which, makes the huge dimensions of the bower more remarkable. 



SNAKES' OLD CLOTHES USED 311 

Woodpeckers, the American species Melanerfes 
formicivoTus stores acorns in holes bored in tree- 
trunks, and even in telegraph-poles. 

Parrots are usually not only non-provident, but, 
like monkeys, wantonly wasteful, which wastefulness, 
I am inclined to suspect, is one reason why they 
are so rare outside the tropics, with this suicidal 
tendency to squander their supplies ; so the case 
of a Grey Parrot communicated to me by Mr. W. 
Elcome, a resident in my neighbourhood, is par- 
ticularly interesting — his bird at meals asks for 
food, and drops it, till it sees it can get no more, and 
then proceeds to eat what it has begged for. 

Rather reminiscent of the habits of both Bower- 
birds and Shrikes is the trick which some birds 
have of lining, and possibly, in their own opinion, 
ornamenting, their nests with curious objects of 
animal origin, the most conspicuous cases being of 
those birds which insist on using a snake's slough 
for this purpose, such as the Great-crested Fly- 
catcher {Myiarchus crinitus), one of the American 
Tyrants, and the Rufous Warbler {Aedon galac totes) 
of Europe ; in India the black Robins (Thamnobia) 
and that burrowing Starling, the Bank Mynah 
{Acridotheres ginginianus) also have this curious 
selective habit. All the birds with this liking for 
snakes' old clothes breed in holes, and it has been 
suggested that the slough is used to terrify intrusive 
lizards, which are no friends to eggs and young 
birds, and are themselves much preyed upon by 
snakes. 



312 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

Among quaint bird customs, a very widespread 
and reprehensible one is that of piracy, the Frigate- 
* birds and Skua Gulls, which live largely on what 
they frighten out of other birds, being the acknow- 
ledged professional exponents thereof, while many 
birds, both on land and sea, attempt it in an amateur 
way. Eagles are notorious highwaymen as well as 
pirates, for though the malpractices of the American 
" Bird of Freedom " on the Osprey are most 
notorious, the inland Eagles are every whit as bad 
^ where Hawks are concerned, as is well known to 
Eastern falconers ; Prince Mirza Mohammed, in 
his admirable treatise on Hawking, translated by 
Colonel Phillott, advises falconers to go out for 
their sport early in the day, because Eagles do not 
begin to soar and look out for plunder till the sun 
is high. Gulls in different parts of the world rob 
Lapwings and Oyster-catchers, and surface-feeding 
Ducks like Wigeon will sponge both on diving 
Ducks and on wild Swans, their own powers of 
exploiting the bottom being limited as a rule to 
depths of a few inches. 

Kingfishers may both rob and be robbed ; I 
have seen a White-breasted Kingfisher {Halcyon 
smyrnensis) in India — a very poor fisherman — rob 
a Dabchick once, and evidently meditate the act 
oftener, and Mr. D. Dewar has seen another Indian 
Kingfisher, the Pied, Ceryle varia, badly badgered 
by a River-Tern {Sterna seena), which wanted a 
frog it had caught. 

The Sparrow, as one might expect from his 



THE ORDER OF THE BATH 313 

hooligan instincts, is a thorough petty pirate ; 
Americans complain that he robs the fine Thrush 
they call a Robin (Turdus migratorius) of its earth- 
worms, and I saw only last year the same trick 
played on a Starling on a little London grass-plot. 
The curious part of the business is that one never 
sees a Sparrow trying to catch worms itself, and 
also in the case I saw, the want of resentment in 
the Starling, usually a plucky bird ; but it is notice- 
able that with birds, as with ourselves, there is a 
general tendency to be deplorably patient under 
imposition. 

Although other animals besides birds assiduously 
clean themselves, as one may see with flies and 
cats, birds have some toilet customs peculiarly their 
own. Of these washing in water is undoubtedly 
the chief, for though beasts and reptiles may 
wallow, they do not wash deliberately as birds do. 
Bathing, however, is not universal among birds ; 
some preferring to roll in dust and throw it over 
themselves, like the common Fowl, whose dry- 
cleaning habit is shared by all the Game-birds, as 
also by the Cariama and the Bustards and Sand- 
Grouse. Among the great runners, also, though 
the Emu and Ostrich wash, the Rhea dusts, picking 
up and throwing the dust over itself with its bill. 
I have also seen a Red-billed Hornbill {Tockus 
erythrorhynchus) in the Zoo dusting, but I do not 
know if it bathes as well, as some other Hornbills 
do. 

Bathing and dusting are seldom practised by 



314 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

the same bird, but the Sparrow, as is well known, 
does both, and I have also seen both habits in the 
Green Bee-eater of India (Merops viridis)^ the 
Blue Roller of the same country (Coracias indica), 
and the South American Seed- Snipe (Thinocorys 
rumicivorus). Larks dust, but also bathe in the 
rain, lying down in it with outspread wings, and 
the Wren is said to dust — I do not know if it bathes. 
Many fine flyers take their dip on the wing, as 
every one has seen with the Swallow ; the Bee- 
eater above mentioned, the Roller, and the Drongo 
or King- Crow {Dicrurus ater) also bathe in this 
way. So do Humming-birds and Kingfishers, the 
land-feeding species of the latter family, as well as 
the fishing kinds, plunging for a bath. All the 
above birds use their feet but little, and take their 
food by the use of their wings, even if by short 
swoops ; but among birds which are active on their 
feet I have seen bathing by a plunge practised by 
the Silvery crowned Friar-bird {Philemon argan- 
ticeps) — a very agile acrobat in the air, in spite of 
short wings, however — and I have seen a Wood- 
Pigeon in St. James's Park on a hot day pitch on 
water out of its depth, and have a splash or two 
before flying out, and this habit seems to be well 
established both in this bird and the House-Pigeon. 
The latter exemplified to me the passion of birds 
for bathing in a very striking way one cold winter's 
day at Charing Cross. The station-yard cobbles 
were glazed with ice, but on them a score of Pigeons 
flapped and wallowed in the cold shower thrown 



UNSANITARY DRINKING 315 

on them by a cabby, who had got his finger on a 
fountain-jet and was making it spirt. Many must 
have seen similar Spartan behaviour on the part 
of many of our small garden birds in venter, such 
as the Robin. 

One curious thing about birds' bathing is that 
they are much more particular about their bathing 
water than that which they use as a beverage. 
They will drink any dirty water, but much prefer 
that which is clean to bathe in ; even Ducks will 
not go into a pond which has become excessively 
foul, and if there is any difficulty about their water 
supply it is much better to give them merely a 
large tin bath filled afresh every day than to dig 
out a pond, if this must become stagnant owing 
to want of facilities for renewing the water. It 
is a similar feeling, no doubt, which makes sea- 
birds resort to fresh water for bathing wherever 
possible ; even the Johnny Penguins (Pygoscelis 
taniata) in South Georgia have been found to 
resort to a fresh-water lake for fresh-water bathing. 
In fact, they liked the pond so much that, according 
to the observer who records the habit, they went 
there to die, many dead specimens being visible 
in the clear depths. 

It is a familiar observation that water rolls off a 
Duck's back, and as a matter of fact, the clothing 
of waterfowl is generally waterproof, as one would 
expect, though not in the Magpie-Goose or in 
Cormorants, whose habit of standing with expanded 
wings to dry themselves after fishing is well known. 



3i6 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

Any water-bird also, when kept away from water 
for a time, loses the waterproof property in its 
plumage, this being most marked in the most 
aquatic kinds such as Grebes and Petrels ; nor is 
the plumage of dead birds waterproof. This being 
so, it is difficult to see how the waterproofing 
efficacy of the oil-gland over the tail, the only 
important skin-gland birds possess, comes in, al- 
though it is admittedly especially well developed 
in waterfowl, and these may be seen repeatedly 
rubbing their heads on it after bathing and when 
pluming themselves. 

Another puzzle in the toilet arrangements of 
birds is the comb-like edge on the inner side of 
the third claw which some birds, such as Nightjars, 
Barn-Owls, Herons, Grebes, and Cormorants, pos- 
sess ; it is true that birds always scratch themselves 
with this claw, though it is not the nearest to the 
head, that place being held by the second toe or 
inner front one (the hind toe being the first), nor, 
in the case of Grebes and Cormorants, is it the 
longest. But though this argues that the comb- 
edge where it exists has some function, it does 
not explain why it is so curiously distributed — one 
could hardly have two birds more dissimilar in 
habits than a Barn-Owl and a Dabchick, for in- 
stance. In the Frigate-bird, which is very ver- 
minous, the claw-comb appears to act as a vermin- 
catcher, but a verminous condition does not seem to 
be universal among comb-clawed birds by any means, 
and is often found in others, such as the Starling. 



THE RULES OF THE ROOST 317 

The roosting -habits of birds display some interest- 
ing variations. Generally in repose birds " tuck 
their heads under their wings," as the popular 
description of the action has it ; in reality the 
bill or head rests between the basal joint of the 
wing and the back, and is merely covered by the 
adjacent shoulder-feathers. Some birds, however, 
such as Owls and Penguins, very rarely assume this 
position, and, as far as I have seen, Grebes and the 
Ratite birds, with the exception of the Apteryx, 
always keep the head to the front. Some birds 
lie down when sleeping, such as the Game-birds, 
the Cariama, and the Ratites, as well as many 
waterfowl ; but others prefer to sleep standing 
on one leg, such as Storks, Cranes, and Passerines. 
Parrots and Owls rarely sit down, either by day or 
night, and generally rest on both feet ; the diurnal 
birds of prey also generally prefer a standing pose 
at all times, with the exception of the American 
Vultures, which sit down when at roost. 

The hold upon the perch, among those birds 
which roost aloft, is maintained automatically by 
the flexure of the toes which results on the bending 
of the hock- joint, so that no eifort is required ; 
but the grip must be very slight in those perching 
birds in which the hind toe is poorly developed, 
as in the perching species of Ducks and in the 
Cariama, which also has very short front toes. An 
even more remarkable percher is a Demerara 
Tinamou which, according to Waterton, has the 
custom, unique, apparently, in its family, of sleeping 



3i8 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

in trees. Its short front and rudimentary hind 
toes are most ill-adapted for such a habit, and 
Waterton considered it maintained its position by 
the rough scales at the back of the shank. 

Some birds roost by hanging themselves up, 
either suspended absolutely head-downwards like 
bats, which is done only by the little Bat-Parrots 
{Loriculus), or by clinging to some support head- 
upwards, but suspended against it by the claws, 
like Woodpeckers, Colies or Mouse-birds, and some 
at any rate of the Swifts. Swifts of the most 
typical kinds, however, like ours and the Indian 
and African House-Swift {Cyfselus affinis)^ roost in 
their nests, a habit rare among birds, but also 
followed by Martins, Tits, Owls, Petrels, and the 
common Pigeon and Wren. In the case of the 
latter, many birds will crowd into one nest or hole 
in winter, and even then often die in a hard frost. 



CHAPTER XIII 

Special physiological peculiarities of birds — Longevity — Tempera- 
ture of body — Change of colour in bare skin of some, such as 
Turkey — ^The phenomena of the moult — Gradual change in 
colour of bill and feet according to age and sex or season 
— Changes in iris colour — Beak-sheath shedding as in Puffin. 

Birds are by far the most perfect of living machines 
that evolution has as yet produced, for although 
they do not nearly equal reptiles in longevity, they 
live much more intensely and exhibit incomparably 
more activity, which must fairly be taken into 
account. In length of life, however, they are 
vastly superior to most of the mammals, though, 
as in so many other cases, length or shortness of 
life is a group-character, and in birds of the same 
group is related in many cases to the size of the 
species. The evidence goes to show that the 
longest-lived birds are the larger species of Parrots, ^ 
birds of prey, and waterfowl, but it must be 
remembered that the data are necessarily obtained 
from birds in captivity or domestication, and that 
large species are generally easier to keep and less 
liable to accidents than small ones. 

But there is no record of any small bird of the 
above groups attaining even half the age that is 
recorded, for instance, for the Lemon-crested 

319 



320 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

Cockatoo, a specimen of which, known to be 
ninety-six years of age, was exhibited at a bird- 
show at the Horticultural Hall in London in 191 3, 
while another has recently died in Australia at the 
record age of a hundred and nineteen; or of the 
well-known London Swan, '' Old Tom," killed by 
accident at the age of seventy. The Game-birds 
are not usually notorious for longevity, but some 
years ago a record was published in l^he Field of a 
Peacock killed by accident at ninety-six, and Lady 
Warwick in recent years has possessed a white one 
which, as recorded in Country Life, must have been 
nearly a century old, since the oldest man on the 
estate, it seems, said that his father, who died a 
very old man, could remember knowing this bird 
as an adult in his own boyhood. 

There are no records of the Raven tending to 
confirm the extreme length of days traditionally 
attributed to it, no captive specimen having even 
reached the three-score years and ten allotted to 
man ; but the smaller Passerine birds are certainly 
very long-lived for their size, the Canary commonly 
living ten years and sometimes twenty, while a 
tame cock-Sparrow of seventeen years old is re- 
corded by Mr. Hudson in his " London Birds." 
These celibate birds, however, very likely have their 
lives unnaturally prolonged by never breeding ; and 
a bird in captivity, in spite of the drawback of 
want of exercise, has a chance of surviving many 
years after its constitution has become too weak to 
bear the violent exercise of escaping from Hawks 



INFIRMITIES OF OLD AGE 321 

and intermittent starvation, troubles which fall to 
the lot of most birds in a state of nature. 

Thus I knew for years an old hen Lapwing in 
the London Zoo which died at the age of at least 
fourteen ; but for years before her death, apart 
from the fact that she had a stiff wing — no doubt 
due to some accident — she was in a most unfit 
state for survival in the wilds, since, a few weeks 
after she had moulted, her quills regularly became 
so worn that she would have been greatly handi- 
capped in flight, and flight is the most important 
survival-factor in this bird, its activity on the 
wing being too much for the average Hawk. 

Almost up to her death, however, she laid an 
egg or two annually and sat on them, but these 
never hatched, though as her mate was a Ruff, 
the hybrid alliance may have accounted for this ! 
Mr. Meade-Waldo's classical pair of Eagle-Owls, 
both of which exceeded sixty years, also bred up 
to within a few years of their death, and the long- 
continued fertility of the Goose is familiar to poultry 
keepers. The Duchess of Bedford, however, re- 
corded in " British Birds " a Collared Dove which 
at the age of thirty failed to fertilize its young mate's 
eggs, so there we get an approximate limit to the 
fertility of this species, which, by the way, is one 
noted for longevity, in which it far surpasses the 
Pigeon, a larger bird and kept as a rule under 
more natural conditions. Among aviary Pheasants, 
however, the small Golden and Amherst species do 
not live nearly as long as the larger Silver Pheasant, 
21 



322 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

nor do the Mandarin and Carolina Ducks as a rule 
equal the length of life of the Mallard, which is 
itself less long-lived than the Muscovy. 

Fowls are usually not allowed to live long, but I 
have seen a hen which, I was told, was twelve years 
old — she certainly looked it ; and I have also seen a 
Bantam-cock of seven, which, though elderly- 
looking, had sired chicks the year I made his acquaint- 
ance. The historical game-cock who killed the 
fox, also, was three years old at the time, and was 
winning contests with his own kind at six years. 
It would be interesting to know how long Hum- 
ming-birds live, and Mr. Ezra's two specimens have 
given us some information ; at the time of writing 
he had had them a year and a half, and they were 
adults when received, so that at any rate these 
birds are not short-lived like insects, as many 
people seem to think they should be. 

They do, however, resemble insects in becoming 
torpid when exposed to cold, and those species 
which range to Canada, Alaska, and Patagonia 
presumably undergo this torpidity regularly every 
night in spring and autumn ; Gould's pair of the 
Ruby-throat (Trochilus coluhris) certainly did so 
when on board ship in cold waters, but this may 
have shortened their Hves, as one died in the 
Channel and the other on reaching London. Very 
young birds, whether nestlings or chicks, also 
become torpid when exposed to cold. 

Generally speaking, the temperature of birds is 
exceedingly high, and maintained under all cir- 



CHANGE OF HUE AND FEATURE 323 

cumstances, no bird being known to hibernate, 
though many, especially Swallows, have had the 
reputation of doing so. It has been suggested that 
Petrels, dislodged in winter from their burrows by 
a fall of rocks, etc., from a cliff, may have accounted 
for this, and certainly Storm-Petrels could easily be 
mistaken for Swallows ; and Pliny must have con- 
founded Shearwaters with Swifts, since he says 
that however far ships went from land, the Swifts 
(Jpodes) still flew around them, which exactly 
applies to these Petrels. 

The temperature of the Ratite birds is lower 
than that of the ordinary types of the class, and 
in association with this approach to the mammalia 
it may be noted that these birds are less long-lived 
than large birds in general, not reaching apparently 
more than thirty years. 

One peculiarity of birds to which little attention 
has been paid is the change of colour or form, or 
both, to be observed in the bare skin of some forms ; 
it is most conspicuous and best known in the 
Turkey, in which the caruncle over the beak 
becomes, as every one has seen, enormously elon- 
gated and hangs down on the neck, the throat-skin 
meanwhile becoming loose and pendulous, while 
the colour of the neck becomes red, with the face 
bright blue and the crown bluish- white, the ordinary- 
colour of the naked parts being a dull light red or 
livid. It is interesting to note that in the splendid 
Honduras Turkey (M. ocellata), in which the bare 
parts are normally rich blue with yellow warts, 



324 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

the colour of these does not change, and that 
the neck-skin is but shghtly relaxed, though the 
beak-caruncle elongates, and there arises an almost 
conical comb, crowned with warts, on the top of 
the head. In the Green Jungle-cock the single 
wattle is let down, and the face becomes red, on 
excitement. 

In the Common and Silver Pheasants the bare 
skin of the face expands both above and below 
when excitement supervenes, and the same pheno- 
menon is seen in others, such as the blue-faced 
Firebacks (Lophura), but there is here no colour- 
change. On the other hand, colour-change may 
occur without change of form of the naked parts ; 
thus in the Caracara Hawk when courting, and 
sometimes under other circumstances, the salmon- 
pink cere and bare face become pale yellow ; and 
the red face of the Bateleur Eagle {Helo tarsus 
ecaudatus) becomes yellow, and its red feet flesh- 
coloured, when feeding, the change beginning even 
at the sight of food. Yet when showing off, which 
this species, unlike other birds of prey, constantly 
does, the face and feet become intensified in their 
red colour. 

In the Pileated Vulture {Neofhron pileatus), on 
the other hand, the sight of food makes the livid 
bare parts of the head turn brilHant rose-pink. In 
the Blue-and-yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna) and the 
Cape Crowned Crane {Balearic a chrysofelargus) the 
chalky white bare face blushes reddish on excite- 
ment. Thus we may see among birds a facial 



THE PELICAN'S HORNS 325 

change under emotion very similar to our own, and 
in some cases carried further, for our features at 
least do not alter in shape ! The expansion of the 
bare parts is said to be effected hy the injection 
of blood, but the pouches of the Adjutant and of 
male Frigate-birds are air-inflated. 

In some birds, as in the Comb-Duck (Sarcidi- 
ornis melanonota) and Sheldrake, the male assumes 
a permanent fleshy outgrowth on the bill during 
the breeding season, which is much reduced at 
other times. In the American White Pelican {Pele- 
canus erythrorhynchus) a horny excrescence grows 
upon the bill during the breeding season, and is 
afterwards shed; it has been said to be confined 
to the male, but the hen of the pair in the Zoo 
at the time of writing has grown one for years past. 

The moult of the feathers has always attracted 
attention ; in most birds it takes place once a 
year, but in some, especially where there is a great 
change of colour according to season, as in Ptarmi- 
gans and the males of some Ducks, it occurs twice. 
The quill-feathers, however, are only shed annually, 
and generally in pairs, so that the bird's power of 
fligh tis not importantly affected ; but in several 
groups of water or marsh birds, which can take 
refuge in water or on boggy land, all the quills are 
cast together, so that the bird is flightless for some 
weeks ; such groups are the Duck tribe (except 
the Magpie-Goose), the Flamingoes, the Rails, the 
Grebes, and the Cranes (except the Crowned Cranes 
{Balearic a)). 



326 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

It is interesting to note that the terrestrial forms 
of some of these families, the Cereopsis among 
the Geese, and the Land- Rail and Wekas among 
the Rails, nevertheless still keep up the wholesale 
moult of their, presumably, marsh-living ancestors, 
and that the Ratite birds do not cast all their quills 
at once, though there is a strong tendency to 
wholesale moulting whenever possible ; thus the 
ornamental plumage of the Gold Pheasant and 
Peacock is shed very rapidly, as are the great show- 
quills of the Argus. The Penguins also moult 
very quickly, throwing off their feathers in masses, 
and as they do not go into the water till clean- 
moulted, have to fast for a period of several 
weeks. 

The colour of the beak and sometimes the feet 
changes in many cases according to season ; thus 
the cock Chaffinch's bill is flesh-colour in winter, 
blue-grey in summer ; and the Starling's beak 
changes from black in winter to yellow in summer, 
and its legs from dull brown to fleshy red. The 
legs of the breeding Night-Heron {Nycticorax 
griseus) also change from yellow to salmon at the 
breeding season, and in some races of the Great 
Egret {Herodias) the bill and face change, from 
yellow, to black in the former and green in the 
latter. Drakes when assuming the female-like 
plumage they bear for a time after breeding may 
or may not change the colour of their bills ; there 
is no change in the Mallard or Pintail, but the 
Gadwall and Shoveller assume the female colora- 



CHANGING TINTS OF BILL 327 

tion of the bill, while in the Red-crested Pochard 
and Mandarin this change is variable, occurring in 
some individuals and not in others. 

The colour of beak and feet, etc., also changes 
according to age ; this is very noticeable in the 
bill of the cygnet of the common Swan, which 
changes from black, through grey and lilac, to pink, 
and finally to orange-red ; but the change from black 
to red can also occur by the gradual invasion of the 
black by the red, as in the beak of the young Zebra- 
Finch (T^niopygia castanotis). In the young Gan- 
net the beak changes from black to white, and the 
green lines down the black shank and toes only 
appear as maturity approaches. The legs and bill 
both change from black to white with age in 
the Indian Pied Mynah (Sturnopastor contra). 
Changes in the iris are quite numerous in birds. 
Usually a dark eye changes into a light one ; thus 
the grey Parrot, when young, has a dark grey iris, 
and the Ring-necked Parrakeet {Palceornis tor- 
quatus) a dark brown one, both having the iris 
white ultimately. But the reverse change may 
occur, for in the Pheasant-tailed Jagand (Hydro- 
phasianus sinensis)^ the young birds generally have 
yellow eyes, and the old ones dark brown ones. In 
the Gold Pheasant the young cocks can be known 
by their yellow instead of brown eyes long before 
coming into colour. Indeed, generally speaking, 
the change, due to age, in the beak, feet, and iris, 
tends to antedate the change in plumage ; but 
tjiere are exceptions, as in the case of the maj^ 



328 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

Blackbird, which gets his black plumage long before 
his bill turns yellow. 

The iris, like the face and feet, may change colour 
through emotion ; thus the red eye of a Pochard 
drake has been seen to change to yellow, no doubt 
through fear, while he was being handled. Besides 
changing colour, the horny casing of beak and claws 
may undergo actual shedding en masse, as distinct 
from the ordinary gradual wearing. I have already 
cited the case of the American White PeHcan, and 
may now draw attention to that of our Puffin 
and of various nearly allied members of the Auk 
family, in which more or less of the horny sheath of 
the bill comes ofE in large pieces after the breeding 
season, producing in the larger-beaked forms a 
most remarkable change of appearance, for in the 
Puffin the bill, shorn of its nuptial plating, is quite 
ordinary in size and shape. 

Among the Grouse, the Ptarmigans lose in 
spring the exaggerated overgrowth of horn on the 
claws which they acquired in autumn to fit them 
for winter's snow-shovelHng in search of browse ; 
and the more ordinary Grouse such as Blackgame 
and Capercailzie also shed the horny fringes to 
the toes which served in winter to provide a kind 
of snow-shoe. Even weapons are shed seasonally 
in at least one instance, that of the Pheasant- 
tailed Ja^ana, which loses its wing-spurs as well 
as its long tail after the breeding season. 



^^- 



CHAPTER XIV 

Abnormalities — Hybrids, their characteristics and power of repro- 
duction or otherwise — Abnormal plumages, such as albinism 
or melanism, temporary or permanent — Overgrowth of claws 
and bill. 

Abnormalities, both of mating and of plumage and 
structure, have not received the attention from 
naturahsts which they deserve, though from the 
philosophic point of view they are often of extreme 
interest. The few facts that are known about 
hybrid birds, for instance, are often extremely 
suggestive. Though generally intermediate in ap- 
pearance, as is the case with the very well-known 
hybrid between the Goldfinch and the Canary, 
they often differ from both parents, special decora- 
tions, for instance, being almost invariably eliminated 
by the cross, unless common to both species. Thus 
the hybrid between the Gold Pheasant and the 
Fowl has neither the comb, wattles, or bending 
sickle-feathers of the one parent, nor the crest 
and extreme length of tail of the other, while the 
colour is of an ordinary auburn or chestnut instead 
of the rich and variegated hues of the original 
birds. 

This uniform chestnut hue turns up so fre- 
quently in Pheasant crosses as to suggest^ that the 

329 



330 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

original Pheasant was of this colour, though no 
such species now exists ; and it is also common in 
parts of the plumage in crosses among waterfowl. 
Glossy purple is also a common colour where gloss 
exists in the parents, although purple gloss is rare 
in pure birds. In the cross between the common 
red Jungle- Fowl and the green Javan bird, for 
instance, the hybrid cock has a purple neck and 
tail, both neck and tail being green in the Javan 
species, while the tail is also green even in the red 
bird. Similarly with regard to the appearance of 
auburn, the breast of the hybrid Gold-and- Silver 
Pheasant is of this colour, although one parent has 
a scarlet and the other a blue-black breast. 

In the hybrid of the Mallard and the Red- 
crested Pochard both tendencies appear ; the 
breast is fawn, quite unlike the chocolate of the 
Mallard and the black of the other Duck, while 
the head is of a metallic puce, a colour one would 
never imagine to have been derived from the Mal- 
lard's emerald-green and the Pochard's chestnut 
and buff. It is obvious in such cases that the 
colours are not blends of those of the parents, and 
the inference would seem to be that chestnut or 
rufous, and purple, were formerly commoner 
colours among Ducks and Pheasants than they are 
to-day; since among crosses oi varieties of the 
same species of domestic birds there is a strong 
tendency to reversion to the original colour, Darwin 
having got birds resembhng the Rock-Pigeon and 
X\i^ Jungle-Fowl by crossing different breeds of 




-o s 



REVERSION IN HYBRIDS 331 

Fowls and of Pigeons which were all devoid of the 
ancestral colours, as related in his admirable but 
rather neglected work, " Variation of Animals and 
Plants under Domestication." 

Now and then hybrids between species have 
been produced showing an extraordinary likeness 
to some species allied to, but distinct from, the 
two forms concerned ; the classical instance of 
this is that of the two Sheldrakes bred at the Zoo 
many years ago between the little-known South 
African Grey-headed Sheldrake {C as arc a cana), 
which much resembles the Ruddy Sheldrake, and our 
common Sheldrake; these resembled the Australian 
dark grey Sheldrake {Casarca tadornoides) far more 
closely than either parent. These birds are to be 
seen at the South Kensington Museum. At the 
Zoo lately, also, was a cock Pheasant presented by 
Mrs. Johnstone, the first importer of the Formosan 
black Mikado Pheasant (Calophasis mikado), and 
bred between that bird and the copper- and- white 
Elliot's Pheasant (Phasianus ellioti) of China, 
which, except for rather different breadth in the 
bars on the tail, was identical in plumage with 
a third species, Mrs. Hume's Pheasant (P. humics) 
of Manipur ; a form far less specialized in coloration 
than either of the other two, and very likely ancestral 
to both, just as the dark grey AustraHan Sheldrake 
no doubt represents an ancestral form of these 
Ducks, generally so strikingly and showily coloured. 
Rarely does a hybrid between distinct species 
follow almost exclusively one parent in coloration^ 



332 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

but this is the case with the hybrid between Ruddy 
Sheldrake and Egyptian Goose {Chenalofex cegyp- 
tiacd)^ which favours the former ; between the Pope 
Cardinal-Finch {Paroaria dominicana) and Red- 
crested Cardinal (P. cucullata)^ which follows the 
latter; and with hybrids between domestic Fowls 
and other birds, such as the Pheasant, Guinea- Fowl, 
and Peacock, in all of which the coloration is purely 
that of a Fowl or nearly so, so far as I have seen. 
Specimens may be studied at South Kensington. 

When the colour is thus dominant, however, the 
shape and size incHne more to that of the recessive 
parent ; thus, the very rare Peacock-Fowl hybrid 
shown recently at the Zoo was a most obvious 
Peacock in size and general shape, though in ac- 
cordance with the general rule of the '^ cancelling 
out " of different decorations, it never developed 
train or crest any more than comxb, hackles, or 
wattle. The Cardinal hybrid had the short head- 
feathering of the Pope, not the long peak-crest of 
the other parent. 

When two species of Ducks, one with an undress 
plumage in the drake and the other without, are 
crossed, the undress is dominant and such a phase 
occurs in the hybrid, as is well seen in that be- 
tween the Rosy- billed Pochard (Metopiana fefo- 
saca), which always retains masculine plumage, and 
the Red-crested Pochard with its very distinct 
eclipse. I note, however, that in a hybrid between 
the Red and Green Jungle- Fowls now in the Zoo 
there is no " undress " neck-feathering assumed. 



DOMINANCE IN HABITS 333 

In which the hybrid follows the Javan, the Red 
Jungle- Fowl assuming after breeding a neck- wear 
of short black feathers instead of long red hackles, 
though this change can seldom be traced in the tame 
Fowl, which generally " skips " this undress phase. 

Among the Ducks, where habit may vary so 
much, we have a chance of comparing the habits 
of hybrids with that of the parents ; the diving- 
habit would appear to be recessive, as hybrids bred 
by M. Roger on between a Pochard drake and a 
Gadwall-Mallard hybrid duck were not only non- 
divers, but more terrestrial than ordinary Ducks, 
though heavily built ; and of several hybrids between 
surface-feeders and divers I have myself seen I 
never saw one dive, though it must be remembered 
that some of the true diving- ducks, the Red- 
crested Pochard for instance, seldom dive in captivity 
even on large ponds ; while on small ponds much 
more specialized diving-birds show a tendency to 
become abnormal and avoid diving and often 
even swimming ; thus, the King Penguin last at 
the Zoo would not enter water. 

The perching habit, in a duck bred between a 
percher and a non-percher, appears to be dominant ; 
at any rate, several hybrids between common and 
Muscovy Ducks I had in Calcutta took to perching, 
though at first awkwardly, sitting along the bough 
lengthways ; they improved later, however, and 
assumed the normal transverse position, and roosted 
in the tree, showing a stronger proclivity for perch- 
ing than the pure Muscovy, though this is a tree- 



334 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

duck when wild, and half- wild ones bred at the Zoo 
perched freely if left unpinioned. As, however, 
the ancestor of the Ducks was a percher — if the 
Magpie-Goose really represents it — this would again 
be a case of reversion. The greater readiness to 
take wing in these Muscovy-Mallard hybrids, which 
has long been well known, as they have often been 
shot in a wild state, is undoubtedly a reversionary 
trait, the common Duck being usually flightless and 
the tame Muscovy very lazy, though able to fly. 

Generally speaking, hybrids between remote 
species, placed universally in different genera, such 
as most of those of which I have been speaking, are 
inclined to be wild and spiteful, and are almost 
universally sterile ; so much so, that one cannot 
persuade bird-fanciers that the Goldfinch-Canary 
" mule " can ever breed. A few years ago, however, 
a bird was exhibited at a Horticultural Hall bird 
show which purported to be a cross between a 
Goldfinch-Canary and a true Goldfinch, and as it 
looked exactly what one would expect such a bird 
to be like, and most certainly not like the ordinary 
first cross or like any casual variation of the Gold- 
finch, I am inclined to accept its authenticity ; 
especially as M. Suchetet, in his book on wild 
hybrids in birds, mentions breeding on one occasion 
from the hybrid between the domestic Dove and 
Pigeon, mated back to a Dove, though this cross 
is also usually quite sterile. 

Hybrids between closely allied species, such as the 
Amherst and Golden Pheasants, and Mallard and 



MULTIPLE HYBRIDITY 335 

Pintail Ducks, are normal or nearly so in behaviour 
and reproductive power ; when bred inter se the 
second generation do not segregate again into the 
original forms or break up into numerous varieties, 
as do the offspring of crossed domestic breeds, but 
remain nearly or quite true to type, so far as the 
few experiments yet made give us information. 

The blood of several species can be blended into 
one hybrid, as in the case of the triple-crossed 
Ducks mentioned above, and Mr. J. L. Bonhote has 
crossed as many as five species, but all nearly allied ; 
M. Rogeron's hybrids of the Gadwall-Mallard with 
the Pochard were sterile. They were, by the way, 
true to type, and showed rufous in parts of the 
plumage where no> such colour was found in the 
parents, another instance of reversion to this colour. 

Recently there was bred at Kew a brood of 
hybrids between a Chilian Yellow-billed Teal drake 
paired to a duck bred between a Chilian Wigeon 
(Mareca sibilatrix) on the one hand, and a hybrid 
between the Madagascar Meller's Duck (Jnas 
melleri) and the African Yellow-billed {A, undulata) ; 
the result of this mixture being very fairly uniform 
and exhibiting far more rufous than any of the 
parents, and a blackish cap and whitish face and 
throat also found in none of these, and on the 
whole displaying a reminiscence of an Australasian 
Tree-Duck {Dendrocycna vagans) ; here again is a 
probable case of reversion^ the Tree-Ducks being 
a primitive type, un-duck-like in gait, shape, flight, 
and note, though typical in bill. 



336 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

Hybrids have generally to be studied in captivity, 
where they are so freely produced that in many 
cases a bird is practically as likely to breed with an 
ally as with its own species, the reason for which 
has been suggested at the close of Chapter VIII, 
as dependent on personal preference ; but in a 
wild state they are always, with one exception, 
very rare, even among the Ducks, in which group 
they occur more frequently than in any other birds, 
though in the Goose and Swan section of the same 
family unknown. 

Thus, in India, Hume in all his many years of 
wild- fowling and collecting, and in spite of his nume- 
rous correspondents, apparently never came across a 
specimen, and indeed only one undoubted one to my 
knowledge has ever turned up there, recorded by 
Mr. W. L. Sclater a few years before I went out ; 
this was between Mallard and Gadwall, but in 
general coloration more recalled a Teal, which must 
make one careful about assigning ancestral reversion 
to hybrids which resemble species not concerned, for 
there is no reason to suppose the Teal to have been 
ancestral to Mallard and Gadwall, unless the 
latter has much degenerated in colour. I am there- 
fore inclined to agree with M. Suchetet, that the 
comparative frequency of wild- fowl hybrids in 
Europe is due to the amount of shooting that 
goes on, and to the practice of keeping waterfowl 
pinioned, both causes leading to birds being de- 
prived of the power of flight, and so unnaturally 
isolated in a territory they would not naturally 



FATE OF THE HALF-CASTE 337 

inhabit in the breeding-season, and thus being 
brought into contact with ahens. 

The only common wild hybrid is the apparently 
sterile one between two very distinct species of 
Grouse, the Capercailzie and Blackcock, which is 
so well known on the Continent as to have a tech- 
nical name, Rakkelhane, in Scandinavia. Many 
examples are to be seen in museums, and the cock 
hybrid is killed down by sportsmen as vermin, 
as it disturbs the pure-bred birds at their tourna- 
ments; the hens are inconspicuous and seldom 
noticed. 

As to the common crosses of all grades between 
such birds as only or hardly differ except in colour, 
such as the Hooded Carrion-Crow crosses and 
others above-mentioned, I cannot consider them 
hybrids at all; as the birds, who ought to know 
their own nationality best, make no caste-distinc- 
tions on colour, I cannot see why naturaUsts should 
presume to do so. 

AbnormaUties in coloration which appear inde- 
pendently of crossing are often very interesting, 
whether they occur in tame, captive, or wild birds ; 
in the last case the frequent whiteness or pied varie- 
gation of the Blackbird is of ancient notoriety, for 
Aristotle mentions white Blackbirds (which he 
thought were of a distinct species), and Varro 
speaks of their being shown publicly in Rome, along 
with Parrots, wild Fowls (probably Blackgame) and 
other curiosities. In the Faroes, a pied variety of 
the Raven used to occur frequently, but has now be- 

22 



3^8 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

come extinct with the killing off of the whole stock. 
One can understand how such a variety can recur, 
from the account given by a contributor to Wright's 
" Poultry Book " of the constant recurrence of a 
few silver-grey ganders in his strain of the ordinary 
dark-grey Toulouse Geese, after he had once used a 
gander of that colour. 

Albinistic variation in birds is commoner in 
New Zealand than anywhere else, and it is interest- 
ing to note that it affects the introduced British 
birds as well as the native species, no doubt because 
in both cases in-breeding has followed the intro- 
duction, natural or artificial, of but a small stock; 
I have noticed that the plumage of most native 
New Zealand birds is extraordinarily soft and flufiy, 
no doubt another form of degeneration, as soft 
loose plumage is one of the surest signs of degeneracy 
in captive or domesticated birds. Albinism is gene- 
rally replaced by lutim'sm, or yellow coloration, in 
green birds, whether pure green or clive-green; 
thus we are familiar with the yellow variety of the 
Canary, originally an olive-green bird, and in India 
a yellow variety of the pure green Ring- necked 
Parrakeet not unfrequently occurs. Such Parrakeets 
retain the red beak, and, if males, the red neck-ring ; 
red having a curious tendency to persist in varieties 
otherwise abnormally coloured. 

Melanism or abnormal blackness is usually rarer 
than albinism, but much commoner in birds of 
prey — except Owls. It must be remembered that 
albinos and lutinos often have pink eyes, and there- 



PARROT ABNORMALITIES 339 

fore no doubt, like human beings similarly afflicted, 
probably have bad sight, so that they are unfitted to 
survive in a state of nature. The white Australian 
Hawk {Astur novce-hollandia) with its black-pupilled 
red eyes, thrives well enough, incidentally showing 
that there is no need for a bird of prey to resemble 
its surroundings for aggressive purposes. 

Particularly interesting are the cases in which a 
bird varies into a different style of plumage than 
the black, pied, white, yellow, or so forth ; thus, 
the brown Kaka Parrot {Nestor meridionalis) of 
New Zealand often produces a more or less red 
variety in nature; and in captivity I have seen a 
specimen of the very rare Derbian Parrakeet {Pala- 
ornis derbianus) at the Zoo become a different bird 
altogether, its pinkish breast turning green like 
the back, and its grey cap black like the throat, so 
that any one would have called it a distinct species, 
while its cage-mate remained unaffected. It after- 
wards, however, returned to its original colour, and 
this is always liable to happen with abnormally 
plumaged birds, unless they are pink-eyed albinos 
or lutinos, in which the abnormal plumage is per- 
manent, so far as I know. 

And as a bird may get more or less white with 
age, in captivity, as sometimes happens with the 
Linnet and usually with black breeds of the common 
Duck, it does not need Darwin's far-fetched theory 
about sexual selection and changes of taste in the 
females to account for the peculiar case of the Reef- 
Herons (Demiegretta) in which the birds should be 



340 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

grey, but often are white when young, white when 
adult, or white all through life. These Herons are 
simply liable to temporary or permanent albinism, 
and in this connection it may be noted that there are 
more all-white species among the Herons than in any 
other group of birds ; incidentally also, the white 
ones are just those which favour warm climates, 
where they are most conspicuous, like the white 
Cockatoos amongst the Parrots. Among Cockatoos 
and Herons, grey and black are also common 
colours, and all poultry-breeders know there is a 
close affinity between grey, black, and white, so that 
here laws of heredity have evidently determined 
the colour, quite irrespective of assimilation to sur- 
roundings. 

The reversion of the captive cock Linnet to the 
young plumage in captivity is of interest in this 
connection, as also the change of the red to yellow 
in the males of some allied Finches, such as the 
Crossbill and Rose- Finch (Carpodacus erythrinus) ; 
in old birds this seems to happen in the wild state, 
and very old cock Linnets when wild seem to be- 
come yellow where they should be red. The fading 
of the red in both sexes of the captive Scarlet Ibis 
{Eudocimus ruber) seems to be a matter of some de- 
fect in the food ; it cannot be due to chmate, as 
this change occurred in the Calcutta Zoo, though 
our old cock always put forth some scarlet splashes 
in spring. Hen birds, being more delicate, might 
be expected to feel the effects of captivity more 
than cocks ; I noticed recently the hen of the Zoo 



THE EMANCIPATED HEN 341 

pair of American White Pelicans had assumed the 
young plumage in the shape of brown markings on 
the wing-coverts. 

The occasional assumption of male plumage by 
hen birds has generally been observed in birds in 
captivity, being most common in the Golden 
Pheasant ; it is of interest that only the plumage 
changes, not the eye-colour. In the common Fowl 
the hen, though she may get spurs even when young, 
never develops the cock's large comb and wattles 
even when she becomes fully cock- feathered. 

Overgrowth of claws and beak is very rare except 
in captive birds — in fact, I do not know any case 
of overgrowth of claws in a wild bird ; such an 
accident, if it occurred, would so soon lead to a 
fatal entanglement or handicap in activity. In 
tame birds it is certainly not due to absence of 
friction in the case of the claws, for these will 
overgrow in Ducks, which do not normally frequent 
hard ground, and in cage-birds the claws will 
grow sideways away from the perch; so it seems 
to be merely a pathological over-secretion of horn, 
and may be compared to the similar overgrowth 
which takes place in the rudimentary back hoofs of 
many mammals in captivity. 

The reproduction of lost parts seems not to occur 
in birds, at any rate as a rule ; thus, a claw torn 
off is not replaced, as all bird-fanciers know. I 
have, however, come across one exception to this 
in the case of a specimen of Pel's Fish-Owl (Scoto^ 
pelia 'pelt) which lived for years at the Zoo. One 



342 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

of this bird's huge talons was broken right off short, 
but was nevertheless reproduced so perfectly that 
no one ordinarily would have ever suspected the 
accident, though to me who knew of it the particular 
claw was always recognizable. 



CHAPTER XV 

Relations of birds with men — Persecuted species — Parasitic or 
commensal species — Domestic forms — Introduced forms and 
the results of introduction. 

I HAVE not left myself very much space to discuss 
the especially interesting topic of the relations to 
our race of various birds, and this is a subject on 
which there is much to be said, and great divergence 
of views. While the ordinary " man in the street " 
is far too apt to pop off a gun at a bird he does not 
know, and hastily to order to execution birds which 
may not be doing the damage he thinks, or may 
offset actual damage by benefits done in other ways, 
the advocate of the birds makes himself or herself 
ridiculous by extravagant praises of the feathered 
folk, talking of them as if they were a set of angels, 
and arguing on the one hand that we could not 
exist without them, and on the other that we ought 
to exist for their benefit. 

As a matter of fact, though on the whole hardly 
ever dangerous, and seldom seriously destructive, 
and often both directly and indirectly useful, birds 
are not indispensable, for their work in insect- 
destruction could be done by bats, batrachians and 
reptiles, to say nothing of insect-preying insects ; 

343 



344 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

and as food they cannot compare in utility with 
beasts and fish, though they ought to be more 
used than they are, and indeed were so, not so many 
centuries back, even in this country, where a silly 
superstition against eating any birds other than 
ordinary game and poultry is springing up. As to 
admitting they have any " rights " to share our 
buildings and produce, I am a humanist, not a 
humanitarian ; if birds get in our way, they must 
go, as the large beasts have gone, in my opinion — 
though I never met anybody more keenly interested 
in birds than I am myself, I only respect humanity. 

At the same time, it may be freely admitted that 
man has in the past, and is still, far too hard on 
many species, and has even exterminated some 
quite gratuitously ; though, as I remarked in a 
recent book of mine, " Wild Animals of Yesterday 
and To-day," it is fortunate that none of those 
exterminated are of very great account either 
aesthetically or scientifically. The Dodo is the only 
such one which has become popularly known, and 
only this and the tallest of the New Zealand Moas 
would attract attention in a live or dead zoological 
collection, as anybody may see if they can get a 
look through Lord Rothschild's monograph on 
Extinct Birds. 

It must be remembered that most of the birds man 
has extinguished inhabited islands, and that in early 
days people had no exact ideas as to the distribution 
of animals, and so did not know the extent of the 
harm that was being done ; even in the last century 



THE EAGLE AS ELIMINATOR 345 

an idea lingered that the Great Auk might be re- 
discovered in the Arctic regions, an area which it, 
as a matter of fact, never reached. When not in- 
sular in habitat, birds have generally become extinct 
through the habit of colony-breeding, a useful one 
in wild nature, because fighters like Terns and 
Weavers may beat off an enemy ; and in any case 
the enemy, if always successful in raiding, is never- 
theless likely to get tired of eating the same food, 
a change of diet being acceptable and generally 
essential to vertebrates. 

When an Eagle used to alight on one of the trees 
inhabited by our free colony of Night-Herons and 
Dwarf CoiTiioT2ints(Phalacrocorax javanicus) in the 
Calcutta Zoo, a roar went up from the combined 
cries of the terrified birds like a train entering a 
railway-station ; yet I have not the slightest 
doubt that, though they made no attempts to 
mob him, he would not have broken up the colony 
even had he not been very unnecessarily shot. 
But then no human inroad was being made on these 
fishing-birds as well ; when man wants birds and 
their eggs for his own use, to say nothing of other 
animals such as sheep, to which, for instance, Eagles 
are enemies, he must inevitably make war on the 
birds of prey ; though there is no need to exter- 
minate them completely, and as a matter of fact 
no bird of prey has been exterminated as yet, 
though many have been driven from districts they 
once occupied. Several Parrots have, however, 
been exterminated from islands, Parrots being both 



346 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

very destructive to field and orchard produce and 
valued aa human food. 

It is curious how well some species of the smaller 
birds hold their own in spite of ages of persecution ; 
the Quail has been massacred wholesale since the 
days of Moses, and probably long before that, and 
yet would hold its own well if it were not for the 
wasteful spring netting. The Blackbird and Thrush 
were favourite game-birds in the Mediterranean 
region in the classical ages, and are so still, and 
yet they are a great deal too common for the peace 
of mind of our fruit-growers ; while even the little 
Blackcap Warbler is cited as a fruit- destroyer un- 
deserving of protection, though it appears that 
Cyprus has driven a brisk trade in bottled Black- 
caps since the Middle Ages ! 

The fact is, man creates by his cultivations and 
by the extermination of predatory wild life so 
favourable an environment for the weaker land- 
birds that he really gives back to bird-life in this 
way what he takes away by destroying forests, 
"" draining marshes, killing for food, and otherwise 
interfering with the larger birds, especially the 
aquatic and marsh-haunting species. Even these 
are very abundant yet in India, where the cultiva- 
tion of rice, an aquatic plant, favours them ; and 
the abundance of the birds of prey, so rare in Europe, 
strikes every one who goes out there. 

The common Indian Kite, indeed, a local race 
of the Black Kite of Europe, is one of the species 
that may fairly be classed as a parasite or com- 



SCAVENGERS AND FRIENDS ^ 347 

mensal of man, since it lives chiefly on refuse from 
his food, makes its nest frequently on his buildings, 
and lines the said nest with rags if it can get them ; 
and it is well known that the Red Kite (Milvus 
regalis) of Europe did the same here, until sanita- 
tion and the absence of garbage reduced it to a 
poultry-yard pest, and there was instituted a per- 
secution of it which has nearly exterminated it in 
our islands. 

Scattered here and there about the world there 
are many such house-haunting species of birds, be- 
longing to widely different groups ; commensals or 
beneficial allies rather than true parasites, since 
they generally pay for their lodging by services as 
scavengers or destroyers of pests. The feeling 
towards these varies from toleration, as in the case 
of carrion-birds like the Kites, the small Vultures 
of the Egyptian Vulture type {Neofhron) and the 
Turkey-Buzzards and Black Vulture of the American 
Vulture-family (CathartidcB), to positive affection 
such as is shown for the White Stork in Europe 
and Asia Minor, Ab dim's Stork in Africa {Ahdimia 
abdimii), and the Swallows everywhere, which 
really have a great deal for which to thank man- 
kind, on whose homes they commonly prefer to 
build, abandoning in most districts their natural 
breeding-sites on cliffs or hollow trees. 

Sparrows also, in spite of their pilferings, are 
befriended on the whole, and the common Pigeon is 
universally beloved, by Christians, Mohammedans, 
and Buddhists, and was probably not deliberately 



348 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

domesticated till long after a period of commensal 
existence ; at any rate in the East, the true wild 
Blue-rock of the Eastern race intermedia without 
the white patch on the back, is still found breeding 
not only in ruins, but in inhabited houses and in 
the sides of wells. A wonderful bird is this familiar 
creature, with an iron constitution which enables 
it to bear any climate from the Shetlands to Bur- 
mah, and to live on any food, from the scanty 
herbage of the cliffs to scraps of man's food found 
in our streets ; near my lodgings I often see Pigeons 
picking even at bones and suet. 

Indeed, if, as I suppose we ought, we look on 
man as part of nature, the Rock-Pigeon can claim 
to have beaten even the Turnstone, for it is probably 
far more numerous than that bird, now that man 
has added to its enormous natural range by taking 
it all over the world where the white race settles 
or trades. Only one other Pigeon has been domesti- 
cated, the pretty Collared Dove, a North-east 
African bird, which has varied but little, and yet 
retains a wonderful swiftness of flight when re- 
stored to liberty, in spite of a domestication of 
unknown date. 

The Game-birds, however, have yielded the 
greatest number of domestic species, the Fowl 
being so familiar that, as Blyth pointed out, it has 
no name, " fowl " being simply Old English for 
" bird," and it is certainly at present the most 
important species to man. The Turkey, however, 
supplied its place with the aborigines of Mexico, 



BIRDS TAMED FOR ORNAMENT 349 

though in Europe and elsewhere in the Old World 
it seems to have remained solely as an article of 
luxury, having usurped the place which the Peacock 
held in Roman civilization. It does credit to 
humanity's love of natural beauty, so often ques- 
tioned by nature-enthusiasts, that the Peacock, the 
most splendid of birds, is kept and has been widely 
disseminated for its beauty alone in modern times ; 
and the same praise may be given to man for his 
domestication of the Golden and Silver Pheasants, 
and of a few less well-known species, as well as of 
the Guinea- Fowl, which used to be kept as a curi- 
osity and no doubt was regarded as very ornamental, 
for Hasselquist says he considered it the most 
beautiful of birds after the Humming-bird and Pea- 
cock. Like the last bird, the Guinea-Fowl has varied 
but little, only showing colour-aberrations as a rule, 
though I once got one in India that would have 
delighted Darwin, as it had a pendulous tuft of 
feathers hanging from its neck, much like the 
Turkey's beard of bristles, which, Darwin said, 
would have been called a monstrosity had it ap- 
peared under domestication. 

From considerations of beauty, too, the African 
tribes in some places, although the negro seems the 
least refined of human races, encourage the Northern 
Crowned Crane {Balearic a favonina) about their 
villages. 

The Duck tribe have contributed the next most 
important quota to our domestic bird-world, and 
as the Indian Runner breed lays better than any 



350 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

Fowls, may be destined to rise in importance. The 
Muscovy Duck, indeed, being widely kept not 
only in its tropical American home, but in Africa 
and the Pacific islands, may claim to be more 
important as food than any other tame bird except 
the Fowl, and is even more easily raised, though its 
utihty is nowadays not recognized in Britain. The 
common Goose is the oldest of domesticated birds 
as far as positive evidence goes, long antedating the 
Fowl, to say nothing of the common Duck, whose 
domestication only dates back to the Christian era, 
since the Roman Ducks of that time were hable to 
fly away; the Muscovy had already been tamed 
by the natives when South America was discovered. 
The Chinese Goose (fiygnofsis cygnoides) is the 
Goose of India as well as China and Japan, and 
apparently kept in West Africa also, from its name 
of Guinea Goose, but the date of its reclamation is 
unknown. 

Besides these practical waterfowl, we have do- 
mesticated the common Swan and the Carolina 
Duck — another tribute to man's love of beauty, 
for Swans are rarely eaten nowadays. It is a good 
thing that the CaroHna's domestication is accom- 
phshed, for this bird is said to be in danger of 
extinction in America, where extermination seems 
to be most difficult of control. Perhaps, however, 
there is some weakness in the American birds 
which makes them " go under " more easily under 
persecution ; it seems strange that the Passenger 
Pigeon (Ectofistes migratorius) should have become 



FITNESS IN WATERFOWL 351 

extinct in half a century, while our Wood-Pigeon 
is so very common — indeed, too often a common 
nuisance. 

As far as the Carolina Duck is concerned, it has 
always struck me that, although slightly larger and 
generally the winner in their contests, it is a less 
" fit " bird than its Oriental cousin the Mandarin, 
which is so freely imported from the East that its 
domestication has never been completed, and is 
certainly far more active, wiry, and versatile in 
its habits. Similarly our Greylag Goose is a 
harder-looking, more active bird than the splendid 
Canadian Goose, its analogue in the New World, 
although it does not seem able to stand up to it 
when it comes to fighting, where mere size in 
birds of the same habits is apt to tell, as cock- 
fighters well knew, endeavouring as they did to 
match birds of approximately the same weight. 

Of Parrots we have only domesticated one 
Australian species, the Budgerigar, which is already 
a most formidable rival of the Canary ; I hope 
in time it will supplant it, for Budgerigars are 
usually kept in pairs, and the worst infliction in 
captivity to a bird is the solitary confinement, 
except in the case of those unsociable species which 
prefer to be alone, and even they would like a 
mate when in breeding condition. I have noticed 
in the case of Pekin Robins, which are not true 
Robins, but Babblers, and so members of a very 
sociable group, that a single bird turned out will 
return to its companion or companions, but that if 



352 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

you let out a pair or a number they will wander off ; 
though in at least one case where this has been 
done a pair has stayed and bred, and the species is, 
I believe, estabhshed at the Duke of Bedford's park 
at Woburn. 

Besides the Canary, which is a bird of recent 
European domestication, man has domesticated, at 
some unknown date and in the far east of Asia, 
two Weaver- Finches, the Java Sparrow (Muni a 
oryzwora), of which the domestic form is white 
or pied, but vnth a strong tendency to revert to 
the original lavender-grey, and the Sharp- tailed 
Finch {Uroloncha acuticauda)^ a little brown bird 
whose dark pied and cinnamon pied varieties— 
they are seldom pure white— are known in the 
bird trade as " Bengalese." Both wild and tame 
forms of these two Finches are imported, but in 
the Java the wild form is far the most common in 
the bird trade, whereas with the other bird it is 
very much the reverse. The Java Sparrow has been 
established as a wild bird in many places in the 
warm parts of the Old World, even as far from its 
original home as Zanzibar and St. Helena. 

Finally, within the last half-century the Ostrich 
has been fully domesticated, surely the most 
remarkable of the conquests of man, this swift 
creature of the desert being the very emblem of 
freedom, in spite of its flightless ness ; and this 
domestication has not only saved it from much 
persecution, but caused it to be transported to 
most quarters of the globe, for there are Ostrich 



THE PRAISE OF CHANTICLEER 353 

farms now in Australia and both North and South 
America, though in South Africa there has been, it 
seems, such a drop in value of late that the poor 
birds have been allowed even to die of neglect, if 
press information is correct. 

Taken altogether, man has done well with his 
domesticated birds ; all, or nearly all, are species 
of remarkable interest in some way or other, even 
the plain-coloured Grey Goose being a bird of 
unusual intelligence and character, while there is 
nothing in wild nature more noble and gallant than 
the poets' favourite, honest Chanticleer : 

" While the cock, with lively din, 
Scatters the rear of Darkness thin, 
And to the stack, or the barn-door 
Stoutly struts his dames before." 

And to have disseminated this fine bird from his 
Indian home '' to the cold white ends of the north " 
and to the farthest Antipodes' seems to me alone 
to atone for what man has done in the extermination 
of some unfortunate forms of bird- life. 

The Fowl has run wild over a vast area to the 
east of its original habit, so that its exact original 
wild boundaries are unknown, and it ought to be 
encouraged to become feral in all tropical countries, 
if only as a food supply for explorers, who often 
find it nearly as easy to starve in the tropics as in 
the cold zones. New Guinea, for instance, is a 
country badly deficient in food supphes at present, 
and feral poultry there would be a useful stand-by. 
23 



354 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

I have always been a supporter of the artificial 
extension of the range of desirable birds ; as we 
must, in our own interests, curtail the range of some 
species, it is only reasonable that we should extend 
that of others, while the harm supposed to be done 
by introduced birds is in most cases grossly exag- 
gerated. According to the current stories, which 
are circulated by exactly that class of naturalist 
which hunts to death the last remnants of hard- 
pressed species, introduced birds increase enor- 
mously, change their habits and become a pest, 
and persecute to the death the " interesting indige- 
nous avifauna." 

The real facts are that any bird which increases 
largely and is at all omnivorous is liable to change 
its habits and become a pest in its own country or 
any other, for where individuals are numerous 
there is always a greater chance of some striking 
out a new line ; I have noticed, for instance, that 
in the few cases in which I have seen Starlings 
feeding in a street, they have always been single birds, 
and those that roost on Nelson's Column in Tra- 
falgar Square (where, curiously enough, they never 
alight on the statue of the hero himself) used, when 
I first observed them some years ago, only to drop 
in in ones and twos, and not, as now, in parties. 

So it is, no doubt, that one hears complaints 
about introduced Starlings from fruit-growers in 
Australia — and also in England, now that this 
bird has so much increased here. As to the effect 
on the interesting indigenous avifauna, this, as 



A REFORMED COLONIST 355 

the case of the sheep-killing Kea in New Zealand, 
and of many fruit-eating birds in Australia, well 
demonstrates, can do a bit in the way of change 
of habits and pestiferousness itself, and I have yet 
to discover the species of bird which is known to 
have been exterminated by the introduction of an 
avian alien. Even the Sparrow, which is certainly 
the worst character on whom we have endeavoured 
to confer the citizenship of the world, has a good 
word said for him by some New Zealand naturalists, 
and is doing something to reinstate his character in 
America by a vigorous war on that most serious 
pest, the alfalfa weevil. 

Where native birds are scarce, or where man 
makes the land uninhabitable for many of them by 
cutting down the ancient forest, as he generally 
has to do, new birds must be introduced if birds 
are as useful as they are supposed to be, and so the 
Starling and House- Mynah will have to be distributed 
over the world, as they have been in Australasia, un- 
less ornithologists find out some way of preserving 
native species in new countries. Fortunately, there 
is no sentiment against the introduction of game- 
birds and wildfowl, and the sporting interest is 
always powerful for the establishment of preserves 
for them ; and as the conditions of such preserves — 
the provision of plenty of cover, food-supplies, and 
ready access to water — are just those which are 
favourable to bird-life in general, the sportsman is 
in the long run the best friend of the birds. He 
may, and does, favour the particular species in 



3S6 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 

which he is interested at the expense of others. 
But Nature, let alone, does just the same ; and 
after seven years' of observation of her policy in 
India, it seems to me that man's methods are 
better ; for although I am no sportsman, yet, as a 
naturahst, I would rather see a country swarm with 
wildfowl and game than with Hawks and Crows. 



INDEX 



Abnormalities of colour, 337 

Ad61ie Penguin, habits well re- 
corded, 4 ; fighting methods, 
297 

Adjutant, bone-swallower, 95 ; 
pouch air-inflated, 325 

Albatross, attacking man, 6$ ; 
death-trap for, 25 ; flight of, 
21 

American Vultures, roost sitting, 

317 
Amherst Pheasant, song of, 285 
Apteryx, incubation, 148 ; nos- 
trils at end of beak, 243 ; 
whiskers, 248 ; scent, 243 ; 
sight bad, 225 ; sleeping pose, 

317 
Argus Pheasant, mouth of, 326 
Aristotle, on Lycian Daw, 223 ; 

on white Blackbirds, 337 
Auks, flight and swimming of, 

26 ; young, 126 
Avadavat, selection in hen, 242 
Avocet, brooding pose, 113 



Babblers, Cuckoo-fosterers in 
India, 191 ; not casting pel- 
lets, 95 

Barbets, ancestral to Toucans, 
35 ; habits of young, 131 ; 
nesthole-cutting, 172 ; whis- 
kers of, 253 

Barnby Smith, Mr. C, on Turn- 
stone, 43 

Baya Weaver, its skilfully built 
nest, 175 

Bearded Reedling, scratching 
for food, 5 5 



Bee-eaters, burrowing of, 171 ; 

caught by fish, 299 ; dusting 

and bathing, 314; gait, 15 
Bell-birds, metallic note of, 291 
Berners, Dame Juliana, on 

Shrike, 283 
Birds of Paradise, side-plumes 

degenerate, 302 
Birds' -nesting Eagle, its peculiar 

habits, 59 
Birds of prey, feeding abnor-. 

malities in, 34 ; flight, 21, 26 ; 

mode of seizing food, 55 ; 

pellets cast by, 94 
Blackbird, albinoes anciently 

known, 337 ; change of colour 

in bill, 328 
Blackcaps, exported pickled 

from Cyprus, 346 
Blackcock, ground-bird with 

forked tail, 32 ; hybrid with 

Capercailzie, 337 
Bonhote, Mr. J. L., his multiple 

hybrids, 335 
Bonxie, or Great Skua, eats 

Kitti wakes, 58 
Bower-birds.variousplaygrounds 

of, 307 
Brain-fever bird, an Indian 

Cuckoo, 191 
Brazilian Teal, quarrel with 

Mallard, 275 
Broadbills, skilful nest-builders, 

184 
Brush-Turkey, incubation- 
period of, 158 ; uses foot in 

feeding, 90 
Budgerigar, a domestic parrot, 
351 ; endurance of tliirst. 



357 



358 



INDEX 



loi ; incubation, i6o ; in- 
telligence, 261 ; different-sized 
young in nest, 153 
Buffon, on Hornbills' helmets, 

51 

Bulbuls, courting pose of, 271 ; 
drunkenness in, 67 ; eating 
earth, 99 

Buller, on habits of Huia, 45 

Bustard, food of, 104 ; hunted by- 
ancient Greeks, 32 ; scanty 
nest, 169 

Button-quails or Hemipodes, 
females feeding males, no 

CaUfornian Quail, over-laying 

by, 152 
Canary, tragedy in nest of, 153 
CannibaUstic tendencies in birds, 

58 
Capercailzie, bill differs in sexes, 

47 ; fights of, 307 ; hybrids 

with Blackgame, 337 
Cape Tit, remarkable nest of, 

179 
Caracara, change of colour in 

face, 324; malice to eagle, 

270 
Cardinal, Red, hen singing, 289 ; 

hybrids between two species, 

332 
Cariama, peculiar young of, 126 
CaroUna Duck, domesticated in 

Europe, 350 ; mating with 

Mandarin, in 
Carrion-crow, crosses with 

Hooded Crow, 337 ; wood- 
cutting power of, 53 
Cassowaries, females dominant 

in, 10 ; pure green egg-layers, 

143 ; weapons of, 293 
Cat-birds, American and Aus- 
tralian, 290 
Cere, function of, 251 
Cereopsis, terrestrial Australian 

Goose, 19 
Chaffinch, getting drunk, 67 ; 

seasonal change in bill of, 

326 
Chaja, or Crested Screamer, 

feeding-habits changed, 65 ; 

weapons, 296 



Clarke, Mr. B., Swifts ejecting 
Sparrows from his roof, 186 

Claws, overgrowth of, 341 ; 
reproduction of, 341 

Cockatoos, longevity, 320 ; nest- 
ing-habits, 172; powder-secre- 
tion, 302 ; rational talking, 
288 ; as wood-cutters, 53 

Cockroaches eaten by various 
birds, J}, 

Colies, or Mouse-birds, roosting 
pose, 318 

Condor, incubation-period, 160; 
poor scenting powers of, 244 

Coot, lyoung bird feeding younger 
106 

Coppersmith Barbet, 291 note ', 
whiskers, 252 

Cormorant, change of habit in, 
1 1 ; method of feeding young, 
118 

Cow-birds, parasitic habits, 201 

Crab-Plover, nesting habits, 172 

Cranes, feeders on vegetables, 
34 ; playfulness, 305 ; moult 
of quills, 325 ; sham eggs, 162 ; 
young of, 137 

Creepers, mode of climbing, 17 

Cross-bill, beak of, 48 

Crow-Pheasant, like Hawk when 
young, 195 ; toad-eating, 96 ; 
uses foot in feeding, 89 

Crows, cunning of Indian, 59, 
160 ; hatching fowls' eggs, 
192 

Cuckoos, their feeding-habits, 
97 ; mimicry, 195 ; parasitic 
habits, 187 

Cuckoo-Shrikes, resemble Cuc- 
koos, 197 

Curassow, male bird building, 
178 ; method of fighting, 295 ; 
selective mating, 274 



Dabchick, indifference to Kites, 

226 ; nursery food of, 104 
Darter, its submerged swimming, 

19 ; young expanding mouth, 

118 
Desert-Chough, feeding on 

ordure, 95 



INDEX 



359 



Dewar, Mr. D., on Crow hatch- 
ing hen's egg, 192 ; on pirati- 
cal Tern, 312 

Dipper, a diving Thrush, 19 

Dove, domesticated, 348 ; species 
marked Hke Cuckoo, 197 ; with 
note like Cuckoo, 290 

Down of young birds, coloured 
Uke fur of mammals, 139 

Dragon-flies, often eaten by- 
birds, 75 

Drongo, mimicked by Cuckoo, 
203 ; police instinct of, 278 

Ducks, colour of eggs, 142 ; 
feeding habits, 38 ; fledging, 
124; their heat-endurance, 
213 ; incubation, 158, 160 ; 
nesting, 185, 265 

Dwarf Bittern,quick wing-action 
of, 24 

Eagles, robbing other birds of 
prey, 312 ; strength of, 57 

Edible-nest Swifts, 182 

Eggs, 141 

Emperor Penguin, breeding- 
habits, 167 

Emu, incubation peculiarities, 
159 ; plucked by Crows, 64 ; 
striped young, 138 

Enemies of birds, 141 



Falcon, male feeding young, 

III; method of killing prey, 

56 
Feet used in feeding, 87 
Finfoots, our ignorance of their 

young, 134 
Flamingoes, mode of feeding, 

39; style of fledging, 128 
Fledging, diflerent modes of, 

122 
Flickers, hybridizing forms, 240 
Flower-peckers, pensile nests of, 

178 ; passing maggots alive, 

91 
Flycatchers, casting pellets, 94 
Fowl, bird with no special 

name, 348 ; hybrid, 330, 332 ; 

becoming intoxicated on 

nilloo, 67 



Friar-birds, bathing on wing, 
314; chasing Hawks and 
Crows, 278 

Frigate-birds, involuntary sui- 
cide of, 25 ; pouch air-inflated, 
325 ; piratical habits, 312 ; 
verminous, 316 

Fruit Pigeons, hopping, 15 ; 
feeding on ground in New 
Zealand, 66 

Fulmar, supposed abundance of, 
149 ; scent of egg of, 146 

Gait of birds, 1 3 

Game-birds, incapacity for mi- 
gration, 214 ; mode of fight- 
ing, 295 ; scratching habits, 
55 ; weapons of, 294 

Game-fowls, fighting powers of, 
295 ; scratching habits, 55 

Gannet, solitary egg-layer, 146 ; 
method of flight, 20 

Geese, varied colours of young, 
136 ; intelhgence, 259 ; threa- 
tening to fight, 300 

Graham, on Hooded Crow, 161 

Great Auk, extinct throughflight- 
lessness, 24 

Grebes, eating own feathers, 
105 ; mode of alighting, 26 ; 
young carried by, 114 

Griffon Vultures, driving off 
smaller species, 69 

Ground-Hornbills, walking gait 
of, 14 

Ground- Parrakeets, 19 

Grouse, feeding in winter, 209 ; 
hybrids of, moult of toe- 
fringes, 328 

Guacharo, feeding habits, 184 ; 
nest, 184 

Guans, tameness of, 259 

Guinea-Fowl, abnormal variety 
of, 349 

Gulls, character of young, 125 ; 
drinking fresh water, 99 

Hairy caterpillars eaten by 

Cuckoos, 97 
Hammerkop, nature and nest of, 

183 



36o 



INDEX 



Hawaiian Goose, living without 

water, 19 
Hawks, typical, mode of killing 

prey, 56 ; skill in settling, 26 
Hearing, perfection of this sense, 

245 
Hedge-Sparrow, great digestive 

power of, 92 
Herons, peculiarities of flight, 

21, 24 ; powdered plumage, 

302 ; variations in colour, 

339 

Hoatzin, young of, climbing 
with wing-claws, 132 

Homing instinct, 217 

Honey-eaters, tongue of, 8$ ; 
pugnacity of, 278 

Honey-guides, parasitic habits 
of, 198 

Hoopoes, nesting-habits, 108 ; 
young, 136 

Hornbills, diet of, 35, 97 ; hel- 
met as a handicap, 51 ; nest- 
ing habits, 170 

Hudson, Mr. W. H., on change 
of habits in Chaja, 65 ; on 
gluttony of Missel-Thrush, 70 

Huia, peculiarities of, 45 

Humming-birds, feeding habits, 
81 ; flight, 23 ; kept in Eng- 
land, 82 ; nests, 183 

Hyacinthine Macaw, great power 
of bill, 86 

Hybrids, characters of, 329 ; 
multiple, 335 

Ibis, hybrid with Spoonbill, 44 ; 
mode of feeding young, 117 

Ja9ana, deciduous ynng spurs 

of, 328' 
Jackdaw, nuptial soaring flight, 

307 ; sense of smell, 243 
Jay, flight of, 32; "Pica" of 

Romans, 223 ; storage habit, 

309 

Kea, a sheep-kilHng Parrot, 61 ; 

pecuhar movements of, 64 
Kestrel : a typical hoverer, 22 
King-bird, police instinct of, 278 



King-Crow, or Drongo, also 
Police- Bird, 278 

Kingfishers, bathing methods, 
214 ; burrowing, 171 ; hover- 
ing, 23 ; not drinking, 100 ; 
piracy by, 312; retrograde 
gait of young, 131 

Kite, commensal with man, 
347 ; deluded incubation of, 
162 ; robbed by crows, 160 

Kittiwake, preyed on by Skua, 58 

Kiwis, see Apteryx 

Koel feeding female, 108 ; para- 
sitic on Crov/s, 191 

Lammergeier, digesting bone, 
95 ; laying one egg, 150 

Lapwing, escaping Hawks, 30 ; 
longevity of, 321 

Larks, methods of cleansing 
their feathers, 3 14 ; various 
bills of, 86 

Laughing Jackass, hops, unlike 
other Kingfishers. 15 

Lories, gait of, 15 ; honey- 
feeders, 85 

Lowe, Dr. P., on accidents to 
Frigate-birds, 25 

Lyre-birds, imitative faculty of, 
283 ; scratching-power, 55 

Macaw, smiling gesture when 
pleased, 263 

Magpie-Goose, ancestral form, 
2 ; feeding habits, ^y 

Mallard, feeding habits, 38 ; 
quarrel with Brazilian Teal, 
275 

Mandarin Duck, imperfect 
percher, 17 ; misunderstand- 
ing mate, 292 ; nesting, 129 

Mergansers, toothed bills of, 37 

Moas, suggested attacks on 
them by Keas, 64 

Mocking-bird, its mischievous 
tricks, 305 ; song spoilt by bad 
notes, 249 

Monaul, hoeing for food, 55 ; 
intolerance of heat, 213 

Moorhens, claws on wing of 
young, 133 ; older young feed- 
ing small ones, 106 



INDEX 



361 



Moult, peculiarities of in differ- 
ent groups, 325 
Mound-birds, their natural in- 
cubators, 157; young of, 122 
Mouse-birds, or Colies, roosting 

habits of, 318 
Musk-Duck, low fertility of, 147 
Mutton-bird, its abundance, 149 
Mynah, incubation without sit- 
ting, 155 ; introduced abroad, 
355 ; preying on lizard, 72 ; 
talking, 288 



Nelly, or Giant Petrel, feeding 
on smaller species, 58 

Nicobar Pigeon, localized nest- 
ing of, 211 

Nicoll, Mr. M, J., on Steamer- 
Duck, 27 

Nightingale, its song a chal- 
lenge, 276 

Nightjars, peculiar notes of, 290 ; 
young of. 131 

Noddy Terns, homing powers 
of, 217 

Nuthatch, bill as hammer, 44 ; 
nesting of, 181 ; storage in- 
stinct, 309 



Open-bill, structure of beak, 38 

Orange Bishop-bird, repelled 
by female, 257 

Orioles, coloration similar to 
Troupials, 175 ; mimicry in, 
278 ; nests of, 174 

Osprey, able to relinquish prey, 
298 ; curious old beUef about 
its feet, 10 

Ostrich, form of foot, 14 ; nest- 
ing habits, 155 ; power of 
defence, 293 

Oven-bird, peculiar nest of, 181 ; 
seized by others, 186 

Owls, day-vision of, 229 ; ferocity 
of. 57. 63 ; perching pose, 
317 ; nesting, 185 ; storage 
instinct in, 310 

Owl-Parrot or Kakapo, flight- 
less ground species, 19 

Oyster-catcher, bill of, 40 



Paradise-Duck, sex-difference 
of, 46 

Parrots, movements of, 17 ; 
nesting habits, 171, 268 ; 
young of, 136; using feet as 
hands, 88 

Partridges, feigning injury, 277 ; 
method of flight, 20 

Passenger Pigeon, now extinct, 
149 

Passerine birds, flight of, 20 ; 
method of fledging, 125 

Pea- Fowl, sexual selection in, 
^7Z \ vigilance of, 231, 246; 
pairing of Javan, 248 

Pelican, use of bill in, 7,7 

Pellet-casting, habit of, 94 

Pekin Robin, method with ants, 
96 

Penguins, mode of swimming 
in, 18 ; pebbles used in nest, 
170 ; quadrupedal locomo- 
tion in, 27 ; short-sighted out 
of water, 229 

Petrels, diurnal at sea, 232 ; 
mistaken for swallows, 323 ; 
wide distribution, 221 

Phalaropes, dominance of fe- 
males in, 10 

Pheasants, incubate longer than 
fowls, 161 ; song of, 287 

Pigeons, digestive powers, 93 ; 
flight fast, 28 ; powdery plum- 
age of, 302 ; shares in incuba- 
tion of the sexes, 116; young 
fed with milky secretion, 117 

PHny, on gait of birds, 12 ; on 
Kite's use of tail, 30 ; on 
Magpies, 223 ; 

Plovers, bills like pigeons', 36 ; 
boring habits, 42 ; spurs on 
wings in, 296 

Poisons, tolerated by certain 
birds, 96 

Ptarmigan, moult of claws in, 
328 

Pufl[in, abundance of, 149 ; 
breeding habits, 171, 185 ; 
change of bill, 328 

Quadrupedal locomotion of some 
birds, 27, 132 



362 



INDEX 



Quail, semi-nocturnal habits of, 
231 ; resistance to persecu- 
tion, 346 ; Painted and Harle- 
quin, gallantry of males, 109 

Quaker Parrakeet, as nest- 
builder, 186 

Rails, intelligent birds, 265 
Ratite birds, feminism in, 115 
Raven, not so long-lived as sup- 
posed, 320 ; I sense of smell in, 

243 

Redpolls, playfulness of young, 
303 

Reptile-eating birds of prey, 
specialization of, 56 

Rhea, curious breeding habits 
of, 115 

Road-runner, fast running of, 19 

Robin, early breeder, 165; hatred 
of red in other birds, 233 

Rogeron, M. G,, on Ducks eating 
earth, 99 ; on scent in Jack- 
daw, 243 

Rollers, young feeding fellow- 
nestlings, 106 

Rook, feeding female on nest, 
106 

Ruff, frill not a defence, 301 

Rusty-cheeked Babbler, its bill 
used as pick- axe, 45 

Salt, appetite for, 99 
Sand-Grouse, covering eggs from 

heat, 155; speed of, -^ 30 ; 

watering young, 102 
Sand-pipers, laying in old nests 

of other birds, 186 
Satin-bird, preference for blue, 

308 
Scissor-bills, exaggeration of 

tern type, 221 
Screamers, padded armour of, 

299 
Secretary-bird, feeding habits 

of, 61 ; weak flight of, 32 
Seed-Snipes, bathing habits, 

314; vegetable feeders, 34 
Sexual selection, 241 
Shag, swallowing under water, 

100 
Shama, its excellence of song, 2 1 6 



Shearwaters mistaken for Swifts 
by Pliny, 323 

Sheldrakes, their dislike for 
Geese, 275 ; diving when 
young, 1 26 ; nesting in rabbit 
holes, 185 

Shoveller Duck, mode of feed- 
ing, ij ; speed of flight, 28 

Shrikes, mocking instinct, 285 ; 
spearing prey alive, 309 

Skuas, piratical habits, 312 

Snail-Hawk, peculiar diet and 
structure, 60 

Snake-bird, name given to 
Darters, 19 

Snakes, their sloughs used as 
nest-Unings, 311 

Snipe, action of beak in, 41 ; 
difference in common and Pin- 
tail species, 42 ; 

Song-Thrush, catching a fish, 72 

Sparrow, imitating song bird, 7 ; 
versatility of, 4, 7 

Spine-tail Swifts, speed of, 29 

Spoonbill, feeding method of, 
44 ; hybrid with Ibis, 44 

Spot-bill Duck, breeding with 
Mallard, 24 1 ; speed of flight, 28 

Spurs of birds, 294, 296 

Starling, honey-sucking habit 
acquired by, 84 ; relations to 
insects, 237 

Steamer-Duck, mode of progres- 
sion, 27 

Storks, friendly with man, 347 ; 
mode of feeding young, 119 

Storm- Petrel, large egg of, 149 ; 
long incubation, 159 

Sugar-bird, honey-eater related 
to Tanagers. 84 

Sun-birds, diet, 82 ; feigning 
death, nests, 178 ; preying 
on lizards, 72 

Sun-bittern, nestUng, 130 ; mud 
nest, 184 

Swallow-Plovers as locust-des- 
troyers, 74 

Swallows, perishing through de- 
lay, 210 ; relations with man, 

347 
Swans, carrying young, 1 14 ; 
pulling food for them, 127 



INDEX 



363 



Swifts, distinctions from Swa- 
lows, 9 ; power of rising, 26 ; 
pugnacity of, 298 

Tailor-bird, peculiarities of nest, 
179 

Tanagers, imperfect digestion in 
some, 91 ; feeding Cuckoo, 
189 

Terns, feeding females, 1 10 ; 
universal distribution of, 221 

Thrushes, pre-eminent as song- 
sters, 217 

Tinamou, beautiful eggs of, 
143 ; exceptional roosting 
habit, 317 

Tinker, small barbet parasitized 
by Honey-guide, 198 

Tits holding down food when 
feeding, Sy ; storage instinct 
in, 309 

Toilet customs, 313 

Tongue, structure and func- 
tions of, 77 

Toucans, eating mixed diet, 35 

Touracous, young of, 133 

Tragopans, precocious fledging 
of, 122 

Trogons, differences in diet ac- 
cording to distribution, 35 

Tropic-birds, flight of, 31 

Tui, mocking New Zealand 
Honey-eater, 283 

Turkey, display of, 323 ; gizzard 
of, 93 ; gluttony of, 67 

Turnstone, its habits and mus- 
cular strength, 42 ; wide dis- 
tribution, 220 

Varro, on birds shown in Rome, 

337 
Vegetarian families of birds, 34 
Vultures, eating fruit, 34 ; not 

so voracious as imagined, 68 



Warblers, grey, rearing cuckoos 
in New Zealand, 193 

Wax-myrtle, berries eaten by 
Swallows, 34 

Waxwing, northern berry-eater, 
209 

Weavers, skilful nesters, 175 ; 
stronger than typical finches, 
215 ; tenement nest, 279 

Weka, destructive to eggs and 
chicks, 62 ; uses foot in feed- 
ing, 89 

Whale-birds, peculiar Petrels, 40 

Wheatear, colonizing Alaska, 
224 

Whip-poor-will, characteristic 
note, 290 

Whitebeam berries, much fa- 
voured by birds, 70 

Woodcock, carrying young, 128 

Wood-hoopoes, their peculiari- 
ties, 50 

Woodpeckers, eating fruit, 52 ; 
sucking sap, 52 ; young, 251 

Wood-Pigeon, intense greedi- 
ness of, 66 

Worms, little liked by many 
birds, 71 

Wry-billed Plover, unique New 
Zealand form, 42 : 

Wryneck, induced to excessive 
egg-production, 151 ; as 
witches' charm, 80 

Xenophon, on riding down Bus- 
tards, 32 

Yellow-billed Duck, breeding 
with Mallard, 241 

Zebra- Finch, its change of colour 

in bill, 327 
Zulus, their rendering of a 

Nightjar's note, 254 



PRINTED BY 

HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, U). 

IX)NDON AND AYLESBUKY. 







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